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HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | going | How many times the word 'going' appears in the text? | 3 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | in | How many times the word 'in' appears in the text? | 3 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | hospitalities | How many times the word 'hospitalities' appears in the text? | 0 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | sedated | How many times the word 'sedated' appears in the text? | 2 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | brightness | How many times the word 'brightness' appears in the text? | 0 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | mandatory | How many times the word 'mandatory' appears in the text? | 2 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | does | How many times the word 'does' appears in the text? | 2 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | tempting | How many times the word 'tempting' appears in the text? | 0 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | voiiiiices | How many times the word 'voiiiiices' appears in the text? | 0 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | whoa | How many times the word 'whoa' appears in the text? | 3 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | foamed | How many times the word 'foamed' appears in the text? | 0 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | pillow | How many times the word 'pillow' appears in the text? | 1 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | put | How many times the word 'put' appears in the text? | 2 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | sharing | How many times the word 'sharing' appears in the text? | 0 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | pull | How many times the word 'pull' appears in the text? | 2 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | too | How many times the word 'too' appears in the text? | 3 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | say | How many times the word 'say' appears in the text? | 3 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | hand | How many times the word 'hand' appears in the text? | 3 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | it | How many times the word 'it' appears in the text? | 3 |
HACKS out bile. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't matter that the water was gone. Sometimes, you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to the top of the Shacko. She looks down through the hole in the floor. In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across his stomach. Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig. HUSHPUPPY Mamma!? Nothing. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Mamma where you at!? As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER. PILOT This is a mandatory evacuation area, you can no longer live here. Everyone in this area, has to leave. I repeat.... EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud. She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out the medicine jar. 48 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When you're small, you gotta fix what you can. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move. Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet-- WINK GUUAAAHH! Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine. WINK (CONT'D) God damn! Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing!? He smashes it against the wall. WINK (CONT'D) What the hell's wrong with you! Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She screams in anger. HUSHPUPPY Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on, ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans, walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's grill over and over. WINK You wanna throw things? Come on! I can do that too. You want to play that game? Let's throw stuff! Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger into the destruction. Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a series of shelves all over the floor. 49 Hushpuppy can't believe it. Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each other and laughing. WINK (CONT'D) Come on! Come on! Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she grins. Hushpuppy throws a pillow! WINK (CONT'D) AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON! Hushpuppy throws a shoe. WINK (CONT'D) AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON! Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house. Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and collapses on the floor. Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life- jacket at her father. Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't return the smile. HUSHPUPPY Man. You think I don't know. Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering. Wink's smiles disappears. WINK Hey. No crying. Don't you cry man. Don't you cry! He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an overturned chest. WINK (CONT'D) HEY! Don't cry damn it! Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall. 50 WINK (CONT'D) Shit. He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine. He sets up two cups on the table. WINK (CONT'D) Come on get a drink. Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot. Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father. Sips again. Wink takes one straight from the bottle. WINK (CONT'D) This counts as I'm sorry for a whole buncha things. Lord. HUSHPUPPY You gonna be gone? WINK What? No! HUSHPUPPY You gonna leave me alone? WINK I ain't gon' leave nothing. HUSHPUPPY Cause if you be gone, I be gone too. WINK Hushpuppy, that is not how it works. HUSHPUPPY I will. Sometimes in the bed I start shaking and can't stop. I got what you got. WINK No man. That's just a side effect of being a stupid little girl. 51 HUSHPUPPY I ain't gonna be dead? WINK No. You? No! You gonna live a hundred years more. You know what, show me the guns. Hushpuppy shoves Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Show me them guns man. Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep. WINK (CONT'D) Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns! guns! guns! Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and TRIUMPHANT-- HUSHPUPPY Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!..... WINK (OVERLAPPING) Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns! Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem as Hushpuppy pins him hard. WINK (CONT'D) Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who the man? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man. WINK Who the man!? HUSHPUPPY I'm the man! WINK TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!! HUSHPUPPY I'm THE MAN!!!!!!! 52 WINK YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?! Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear. WINK (CONT'D) Fuck this table! In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it across the room. This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild animal father, longing for something more than rage. Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then stops, turning back. WINK (CONT'D) I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be strong. Don't be scared. Wink lays down in the corner. Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there. WINK (CONT'D) What? Hushpuppy waits, not backing down. WINK (CONT'D) (GIVING IN) Come here. Hushpuppy goes to Wink. WINK (CONT'D) Lay down. Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it. A long beat. WINK (CONT'D) Hey. HUSHPUPPY Yea? WINK You ain't the one who's sick. 53 She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART. EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking exhausted and starved. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Strong animals got no mercy. Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going to make it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They the type of animals that eats their own Mommas and Daddies. CUT TO: The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin and organs in a storm of flesh and gore. The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another, sound, more MECHANICAL... INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER. Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm. Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are out of place like aliens exiting their space ship. She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to defend them with. EVACUATOR (O.S.) (from outside the door) This is a mandatory evacuation area. Everyone in this region has to leave. Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to enter. 54 WINK We ain't going nowhere! Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff. INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house. Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife and civil war era pistol. LITTLE JO You gonna have to shoot me cause I'm not going. EVACUATOR 2 Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you. LITTLE JO I ain't never left here and I won't never will. She spits. They get closer. LITTLE JO (CONT'D) Son, don't make me cancel your birth certificate. The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam her to the ground. It's horrible. EVACUATOR 2 Relax, relax ma'am. LITTLE JO YOU SON OF A BITCH! They drag Little Jo out of the house. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out. WINK Get your hands off of her! I'm gonna kill you! Let her go! 55 EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the glass doors. A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center." INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent- lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of sterility. Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like they've descended from another planet. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) It didn't look like a prison, it looked like a fish tank with no water. The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees. Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting for assistance. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's tray. WINK Don't eat that. DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor hustles toward the lunch line. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you, we found something in your test. It's- WINK Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my kid. Stay, Hushpuppy. 56 Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot. DR. MALONEY Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to say this... Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come through the din of refugees. DR. MALONEY (CONT'D) ...require surgery immediately...you need to think about what you want for your daughter...you could die. In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies. WINK I don't need nothing from you! You keep your hands off her! I don't need nothing from y'all! Let me go! Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a wheelchair. He looks through an open door. In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a BABYSITTER. She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate blue dress. The image is jarring. 57 BABYSITTER Hushpuppy needs a hug. HUSHPUPPY I don't want your hug! The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm away. BABYSITTER Hushpuppy, that's not how nice girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am." Hey! Say it. Say it or you're going to corner time. Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his horrifying appearance. Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth. He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm. ORDERLY (gently moving Wink's hand AWAY) There there, sir. Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks infected and mishandled. The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator. She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his chest. His heart is beating. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall. She whispers in his ear. 58 HUSHPUPPY They're coming for you. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY She repeats the process with another vegetable. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer, or catch catfish, that I had to put him in a boat, and set him on fire, so no one could come plug him into the wall. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed. She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's regaining his strength and is able to hold them off momentarily before submitting, and going limp. Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it. We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away. Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on the floor. Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake. WINK Boss. Let's go. HUSHPUPPY Where we goin'? 59 INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee center. Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a gurney. Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have their own plan afoot. INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to maintain decorum. JEAN BATTISTE Go home! Everybody get up! Don't you want to go home? Lets go! These people don't care about you! Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe. LITTLE JO You live in this hell hole! INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines. Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy. Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door slams between them. WINK (from outside the door) Make sure you put her somewhere good ok? Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave.. HUSHPUPPY (banging on the door) NO! I ain't running! No! 60 Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face clutched in the horror of what he's done. Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently. Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching and kicking. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Let me go! The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors open. She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove. He topples over. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) You trying to get rid of me! You trying to get rid of me! WINK No! HUSHPUPPY Why you trying to get rid of me? WINK I ain't trying to get rid of you. HUSHPUPPY You is. WINK No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care of you no more. HUSHPUPPY Yes you can. Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing. WINK Daddy's dying! Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down. WINK (CONT'D) My blood is eating itself. You know what that means? 61 HUSHPUPPY Don't be sayin' about dying. WINK Everybody's Daddy dies. HUSHPUPPY Not my Daddy. WINK Yes, your Daddy! Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in. It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her. WINK (CONT'D) I didn't want you to watch that, ok? You understand? Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly. Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass, dripping from his mouth. The Bathtub gangs charges out the door! Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming to a halt around Wink. Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking lot. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Come on! Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him. WINK Walrus, get me home. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town. His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able to help walk. We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been a long journey home. 62 INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance. Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to watch. Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then looks away as fast as he can. Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Everybody looses the thing that made them, it's even how it's supposed to be in nature. EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it. She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning. Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run. A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs? She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact. EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING The beacon blinks out on the water. 63 Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered behind her. Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her internal path of action is certain. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging behind her. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water, pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of the beacon. HUSHPUPPY Come on! Keep going! They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere, the current pulls them backwards. We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe head, appears through the mist. EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck. They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck. Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) - A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache, saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these runts with an air of suspicion. HUSHPUPPY I'm going by my Mamma. He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness. SERGEANT MAJOR That's a good place to go. 64 EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another dimension. HUSHPUPPY Which way are we going? SERGEANT MAJOR Don't matter baby, this boat'll take you exactly where you need to be. It's just that type of boat. Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences last. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) You want a chicken biscuit? Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) They're good for you. A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers. SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D) I been eating these all my life. I keep the wrappers in the boat, `cause they remind me who I was when I ate each one. The smell make me feel cohesive. HUSHPUPPY I wanna be cohesive. SERGEANT MAJOR Oh you will be, I got no doubt in my mind. They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel chair back toward the water 65 The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go wide. As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half- sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS." EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to each other in wonder. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland. Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their ladies of the night. There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller. The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this establishment, comes a'hoppin'. MISS FRANKIE Holy crap you have toddlers! SERGEANT MAJOR Good afternoon, Miss Frankie. MISS FRANKIE Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major? You need some grits? SERGEANT MAJOR Yes ma'am. 66 MISS FRANKIE Holy Sugar, they are so precious! Y'all just as cute as a tub of puppies! Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists. Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They are not who she is looking for. She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it, none of them right. Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes, ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed. She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven. SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles. It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the swinging doors. They open. Hushpuppy holds her breath. A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold beer. The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy. COOK You need something baby? Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak. COOK (CONT'D) Well whatchu want? You alone? Hushpuppy shrugs. She's too stunned, too shy to speak. 67 The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy, she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze. COOK (CONT'D) Get in here, I'm'll show you a magic trick. Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her head against the swinging doors on her way in. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at the egg and it cracks over the grits. Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail on the table and begins sawing through the scales. COOK Lemme tell you somethin', when you're a child people tell you that everything's gonna be all hunky- dory and all that bullshit, but I'm here to tell you that it's not. So get that out your head right now. She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy like its a pointer. COOK (CONT'D) Life's some big old feast, yeah, but you? You ain't nothin' but a stupid little waitress. She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries. COOK (CONT'D) Everything you got on your platter gonna fall on the floor and ain't nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you. Someday it's all gonna be on you. 68 She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over everything. COOK (CONT'D) So smile, girl. Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head, opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry. COOK (CONT'D) Nobody likes a pity-party-having- ass-woman. Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous dollop of grits. COOK The gator's magic. Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis. COOK (CONT'D) (encouraging a smile) Awwwwwwwww. A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face. COOK (CONT'D) Mmm-hmm. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club, slow-dance not pole-dance. The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love. They are orphans in a heaven of mothers. 69 We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and the Cook. The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter. HUSHPUPPY You can take care of me. Me and Daddy. After a long beat. The Cook shakes her head `no.' COOK I don't know nothing bout your Daddy, I can't take care of nobody but myself. This sinks into Hushpuppy. COOK (CONT'D) You can stay if you want. Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook. HUSHPUPPY This is my favorite thing. COOK I know. A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere else. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the time I've been lifted. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's Wink, younger and healthier. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers. 70 He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries her. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S) Wink! Bring my baby here! They need to wash her off. WINK Naw, that waits. Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles Wink. She coos. WINK (CONT'D) (TO HUSHPUPPY) Alright fatso, breathe some air. They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world. INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly not hugging back, just being held. HUSHPUPPY I need to go home. COOK (WHISPERED) No. Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers something inaudible. The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around, then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze. Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying couples. All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of light like a crown around her. MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera. 71 EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to the Bathtub. EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks. We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid land. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable. EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY The children crest the ridge. The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently audible. Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive moving behind the distant oaks. The kids turn and hustle down the ridge. Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder. Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot toward the shacko. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their eyes meet. 72 In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting for her fate, staring toward her father. | occurring | How many times the word 'occurring' appears in the text? | 0 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | on | How many times the word 'on' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | crummy | How many times the word 'crummy' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | about | How many times the word 'about' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | position | How many times the word 'position' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | exits | How many times the word 'exits' appears in the text? | 3 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | traffic | How many times the word 'traffic' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | hounds | How many times the word 'hounds' appears in the text? | 0 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | sh-- | How many times the word 'sh--' appears in the text? | 0 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | outward | How many times the word 'outward' appears in the text? | 0 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | can | How many times the word 'can' appears in the text? | 3 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | script | How many times the word 'script' appears in the text? | 3 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | freely | How many times the word 'freely' appears in the text? | 1 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | devastating | How many times the word 'devastating' appears in the text? | 1 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | driver | How many times the word 'driver' appears in the text? | 1 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | to | How many times the word 'to' appears in the text? | 3 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | tech | How many times the word 'tech' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | off | How many times the word 'off' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | around | How many times the word 'around' appears in the text? | 3 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | us | How many times the word 'us' appears in the text? | 2 |
Hard to Kill Script at IMSDb. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-3785444-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb) The web's largest movie script resource! Search IMSDb Alphabetical # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genre Action Adventure Animation Comedy Crime Drama Family Fantasy Film-Noir Horror Musical Mystery Romance Sci-Fi Short Thriller War Western Sponsor TV Transcripts Futurama Seinfeld South Park Stargate SG-1 Lost The 4400 International French scripts Movie Software Rip from DVD Rip Blu-Ray Latest Comments Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith10/10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens10/10 Batman Begins9/10 Collateral10/10 Jackie Brown8/10 Movie Chat Message Yell ! ALL SCRIPTS HARD TO KILL Revised Screenplay by Steven Pressfield & Ronald Shusett & Steven Seagal Story by Steven Seagal & Ronald Shusett & Steven Pressfield & Bruce Malmuth Based on an Original Screenplay by Steven McKay FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY FINAL DRAFT February 17, 1989 Converted to PDF by SCREENTALK www.screentalk.org FADE IN: EXT. HOLLYWOOD HILLS HOUSE - EARLY EVENING A modest but handsome home in the foothills above Gower. SUPERIMPOSE: "1983" A young boy, SONNY STORM, rushes out -- excited but pouty and a little peeved. He glowers at a 1981 Mercury, parked at the curb -- then turns back toward the house. SONNY (calls back to house) Daddy! I don't want you to go! MASON STORM emerges from the house -- wearing a dark Gianni Versace sport coat with a black vest underneath, carrying some kind of case in his hand. He looks great -- a man of action, not dandified at all by the snappy attire. He squints down toward Sonny, proudly -- very much the family man. Mason's pretty wife, FELICIA, appears in the doorway. FELICIA (calls to Sonny) Your father has work to do, Sonny ... but he'll be home soon. And we'll all watch it together. SONNY You promise, Dad? STORM I promise. Storm and Felicia come down to car, his arm around her. Sonny grabs his father's shirtsleeve. SONNY Daddy ... (very serious) Daddy, is E.T. gonna win? STORM He's got my vote. Storm laughs and ruffles his son's hair. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 2. FELICIA (tight to Storm) I want you back early. Tonight's the night those little starlets are crawling all over town. STORM Don't worry. I'll beat 'em off with a stick. He kisses Felicia, ready to leave. SONNY Daddy (wants him to stay) What about my joke? Storm lifts Sonny up into his arms. He gives the boy 100% of his attention, speaks just for him. STORM Knock knock. SONNY Who's there? STORM Old lady. SONNY Old lady who? STORM I didn't know you could yodel. Sonny may not get the joke, but he laughs delightedly -- just because it's his dad telling it. Storm kisses him and sets him down. FELICIA (to Storm) Take my advice: Don't give up your day job. TITLES BEGIN. INT. STORM'S CAR - MOVING - POV THROUGH WINDSHIELD NIGHT Freeway traffic. Smoke in the sky ... flames ... the oil refineries south of Torrance. A police RADIO is on, LOW, and we can hear the SQUAWKING COMMUNIQUES in the b.g. We become aware of a black limousine, ahead in the traffic. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 3. REVERSE ANGLE - STORM as he drives. Intense now -- mind focused. Radio handset in his hand. STORM (into handset) Karl ... wake up. INTERCUT POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT KARL BECKER, Storm's partner, a nice guy in shirtsleeves with a huge nautical-type wristwatch. He's wide awake all right -- eager for this call. KARL (into radio) I'm here, Mase. Where are you EXT. HARBOR FREEWAY - NIGHT Storm's Mercury moves discreetly, tailing the limo. STORM On the Harbor ... south of Torrance. I got Calabrese right in my gunsights. WITH STORM STORM If I had a Sidewinder missile, I could save the taxpayers a lot of money. Suddenly he is more alert, slowing the car. LIMO veers toward an upcoming exit ramp. STORM (V.O.) Here he goes. I'm shutting down the radio, partner. ANGLE ON SIGN PORT OF LOS ANGELES SAN PEDRO TERMINAL PIER 65 Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 4. As the limo passes and, moments later, Storm's car. KARL (V.O.) Keep off the skyline, amigo. (by the way) Lou Gossett just won Best Supporting. TITLES END. EXT. COMMERCIAL PIER - NIGHT The limousine slowly moves up beside a stand-alone shack near the edge of the wharf. The shack is an open shelter with a broad overhang, and various kinds of equipment stored inside it. A single bulb illuminates it. The limo comes to rest, engine off, no apparent activity in or out of the vehicle. STORM'S CAR pulls up at a distance, deep in shadow. INT. STORM'S CAR - NIGHT He switches OFF the RADIO, twists a telephoto night lens onto a specially silenced 8mm surveillance film camera; he primes a portable sound deck in the case he's been carrying. A quick check of the .45 in his shoulder holster, then he exits the car. ON STORM Moving carefully onto the wharf, keeping to shadow, using cover. EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Stacks of huge shipping crates and Sea-Land containers from a long wall along the cluttered dock. The towering hulks of several ships loom close by. Storm finds a slot between bulk containers: a good surveillance point. STORM Let's go, boys. I'm missing the Oscars. He is less than forty yards away, looking lengthwise down the car from its rear. A beat, as Storm picks up the sound before we do. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 5. STORM'S POV - STATION WAGON A paneled, expensive model approaches. The wagon pulls up, a short distance from the limo. A man gets out from the wagon. A beat later, the driver exits the limo. Both are armed. They check out the area, in all directions. SHACK One man crosses under the eave of the shack -- reaches up, SMASHES the single LIGHT BULB. The spot goes dark. WITH STORM Seeing the doors open on both cars. A mature man, CALABRESE, and his stocky confederate, VITALE, step from the limo. TWO other MEN -- one wearing a stylish hat, the other bareheaded -- step from the wagon. They cross to the shadowed, shack area. STORM (O.S.) (to himself, softly) I know you, Calabrese. But who are these mystery guests? The two Shadow Men are obscured by the shack and the position of Calabrese and Vitale. STORM Starts his camera soundlessly whirring. He positions his high-tech directional mike, slipping on earphones. WHARF - CONSPIRATORS There is NOISE from various wharf MACHINERY on adjacent piers, but the high-tech listening equipment still brings in the sound with acceptable clarity. CALABRESE -- Murder is a serious business, my friend. And an expensive one. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT You'll be well compensated, Calabrese. Money now -- and a lot more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 6. THROUGH TELEPHOTO LENS Despite the shadows, it's plain the Man With The Hat is in his prime, full of vigor and impatience. Calabrese, by contrast, is clearly older, more circumspect. CALABRESE Slowly ... slowly. Always with caution. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT I'm up to here with caution! That fuck lives on bean curd and alfalfa sprouts -- he ain't gonna die of natural causes. CALABRESE All I'm counseling is a little patience. The man is public. He's in the paper every day. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT Yeah? Well, the next time I read about him, it better be in the obituaries. ON STORM He squints over the camera, straining to see with the naked eve Frustration ANGLE - CALABRESE AND VITALE Glancing to each other. They're tough guys, but in some hard-to-define way, the two Shadow Men are tougher. BAREHEADED SHADOW MAN Enough bullshit. Can you do the job or not? If you can't - VITALE We'll do it. STORM Knowing he's on to something super hot. STORM (to himself, soft but intense) Who are you? Get out of those shadows -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 7. It's driving him crazy that he can't make out the Shadow Men's faces. He peers around the wharf, looking for some better vantage point. SHACK - CONSPIRATORS keep talking. ANGLE - STORM Darting closer, using the row of bulk containers for cover. He takes up a new position, nearer the shack re-aims the camera. LOOKOUT #1 (MIKEY) hears something -- peers directly at the spot where Storm is hiding. STORM ducks quickly back out of sight. As he does this, his earphone cord catches on something. yanking the phone off Storm's head. He cannot hear what the conspirators say next -- but the audience can. CONSPIRATORS SHADOW MAN WITH HAT The job is a light plane ... a Lear P61. We want it to take off -- we don't want it to land. Calabrese becomes aware of Mikey checking out the noise; he motions the conspirators to shut up, then signals Mikey to proceed. Mikey cocks his pistol, moves swiftly toward the line of containers. SHADOW MAN WITH HAT steps forward into the light. His face comes clearly into view. Well dressed, magnetic, Bobby Kennedy-ish -- he is L.A. Assemblyman VERNON TRENT. TRENT (SHADOW MAN WITH HAT) (to Calabrese, with menace) You told us this dock was clean -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 8. STORM'S HIDING PLACE - MIKEY steps around one container (out of view of the other men) to the exact spot where Storm was. But Storm isn't there. Mikey is about to check farther, when out of nowhere: Storm lashes out with a savage punch to the face. The blow is so devastating it knocks Mikey's feet out from under him so that he topples face-forward into Storm's arms, out cold. Storm soundlessly lowers the lookout to the ground. Storm shakes a sore hand and notices it's cut. Kneeling down to the outstretched heap, he finds the cause of his injury -- one of Mikey's teeth wiggles freely in his fingers. Storm plucks the tooth and folds it inside the big guy's hand. STORM (re: the fairy) A quarter's a quarter. WHARF - SHACK Calabrese and Vitale are getting uneasy. CALABRESE Mikey! Quit playing with yourself back there. (no response) Mikey -- Guns come out. Calabrese and Vitale start this way -- STORM bolts back up the wharf, toward his car. CALABRESE AND VITALE hurry up to their fallen comrade. They see Storm 50 yards back up the pier, fleeing. Vitale takes off after him at a dead run. At that instant: TRENT moves INTO FRAME beside Calabrese. The Bareheaded Shadow Man with him is Police Captain DAN HOLLAND (in civilian business suit) -- 21 years on the force, hard as nails. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 9. CONSPIRATORS' POV They see Vitale pull up, on foot, as Storm's CAR ROARS OFF into the darkness. Vitale seems close enough to pick out the license number. BACK TO TRENT As his face moves into the light. Merciless, implacable. TRENT (to Calabrese) Whoever that sonofabitch is, I don't want him to get an hour older. CALABRESE He won't, Mr. Assemblyman. CALABRESE'S LIMO speeds up beside the conspirators. Calabrese gets in, the limo whips off down the wharf to pick up Vitale and take off after Storm. TRENT AND HOLLAND stand watching -- grim, furious. INT. POLICE STATION - DETECTIVES ROOM - NIGHT A burly plainclothesman, MAX DUNNE, waves his phone receiver at Karl, Storm's partner, who's still at the desk where we last saw him. A TV across the room tuned to the ACADEMY AWARDS. DUNNE Karl -- Storm on three. INTERCUT: MINI-MALL PHONE BOOTH Storm in a phone booth, crummy neighborhood near Torrance. Karl punches line three, picks up his phone. KARL You throwing away dimes now? STORM This doesn't go out over the air, pal. For your ears only. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 10. KARL (getting out note pad) What's going down? STORM Calabrese. I just got his ass -- on candid camera. KARL You're full of shit! STORM Him and his gorilla Vitale. I got film and audio on both of them, laying out a hit. Two other guys I couldn't make out, but I'm sure they'll come up on the film. This is a big one, Carlito. Our own academy award. You ready? KARL (taking notes) Shoot. STORM I want you to track down Morgensteen right now. If he's with that meter maid from Pico, crank her legs apart and pry him out of there. KARL He ain't gonna be happy. STORM Screw his happiness. Tell him I want the lab open at six-thirty tomorrow morning. I want this film pushed to the max, and nobody but us to know about it. I know we got something here. KARL You bringing it in tonight? STORM I promised my kid I'd be home. I'll be at the lab before dawn. Storm hangs up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 11. EXT. MINI-MALL - NIGHT A crummy mini-mall around Torrance. Storm exits the phone booth -- crosses toward a liquor store, which is still open this late at night. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Storm enters. A grimy, high-crime booze store. Not exactly the place to find Mumm's '36. STORM How ya doing? (looking around) Got any champagne? The grizzled MAN behind the counter checks out Storm's Versace threads. COUNTER MAN Right next to the caviar. (winks; points) There's some in the big cooler. Storm likes the guy. He notes the man's MINI-TV tuned to WRESTLING. STORM You're not watching the Oscars? COUNTER MAN The Oscars? I hate the Oscars. Storm crosses to the cooler. COUNTER MAN Who needs the goddam movies? I get it all in here every night. (indicates his view from behind counter) Horror. Sex. Freaks. Violence. And I ain't gotta pay no four bucks. Storm pulls a bottle from the cooler. He notices, on a high shelf, a big stuffed toy. Something for Sonny. Storm stretches up, grabs it. Suddenly: He notices something in the big convex shoplifting mirror. Something approaching from outside. STORM (to Counter Man) You got a phone back there? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 12. COUNTER MAN Why ? STORM (orders him) Punch nine-one-one. The Man hesitates, letting a few precious seconds pass. Three Latino PUNKS enter the store. One of them carries a long-barreled shotgun. COUNTER MAN Sonsofbitches! You creeps ripped me off two weeks ago! SHOTGUN PUNK Shut up. He gestures to the register. COUNTER MAN Take it, man. Take my life's savings. He scoops bills from the cash drawer (about twenty bucks) shoves them to the Shotgun Punk. The Punk scowls -- COUNTER MAN Where is a cop when you goddam need one? (to Punks, threatening) I got half a mind to come out there and teach you sonofabitch -- Shotgun Punk FIRES without warning -- point blank into the counter display and the Man! The Counter Man is BLOWN backwards -- cabinets crash; he crumples, groaning and bloody onto the floor! SHOTGUN PUNK Now you got half a mind, old man. Punk #2 scoops up the money. The three Punks saunter up and surround Storm. Storm looks down at their feet, then to their faces and smiles. Shotgun Punk points the gun at Storm's face. SHOTGUN PUNK What are you grinning at, pindejo? STORM We ... ell ... there's only three of you and you only got one shot left. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 13. The Punks don't know whether to laugh or just shoot him, but it is too late for either option, as Storm suddenly spins between the Punks and behind the gun. The SHOTGUN GOES OFF and BLOWS away part of the back WALL -- BOTTLES EXPLODE -- Storm locks the Punk's fingers into the gun, rotates the gun as a bar, breaking the Punk's arm. The others make their move -- but now Storm has the shotgun and is using it as a sword or staff. He looks like a true master conductor in an almost magical manipulation. These pour stupid Punks have become the instruments in his spontaneous orchestra. Punk #2 takes a vicious swipe at Storm with his long knife. Storm ducks, goes to his knees, and uses the gun to foot- sweep the Punk. The Punk's legs fly skyward and his head slams against the floor. As soon as he hits, the shotgun is slammed through his teeth. The last Punk has produced an icepick and is staring at his compadres in disbelief. He and Storm square off. STORM (to Punk, calmly) I know what you're thinking. I have this big shotgun and all you have is that little icepick. Mine's bigger than yours. It's not fair. Storm sets the gun down. Punk #3 is still frozen. STORM Still not fair? Storm gets down on his knees. STORM Don't wait for the blindfold, maricon. PUNK #3 (clutching the ice pick tightly) Chinga tu madre! The Punk lungs, thrusting the ice pick with lightning speed at Storm's face. Storm makes a slight movement, parries the thrust and slides his body behind the Punk, simultaneously slamming his forearm into the rear knee joint. The Punk buckles and Storm now has one of his legs in both arms and pins the other leg with his left knee. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 14. We see the leg held in Storm's arms begin to twist ... and with a blood-curdling scream we hear a LOUD SNAP. SIRENS are heard approaching outside. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Black and whites pack the parking lot. Police ambulances make ready to haul off the three Punks. T he Counter Man, bandaged on a gurney, is wheeled out by paramedics. One medic catches Storm's eye -- flashes a gesture indicating the Counter Man will be okay. Storm finishes with two other DETECTIVES, obviously buddies, as they complete their on-site notes. The champagne bottle rests on the hood of their car. DETECTIVE #1 You were armed, Storm -- why didn't you just use your gun? STORM I just got these new glazer bullets. You know they're almost a buck a pop now? He grabs the champagne, takes off for his car. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" PLAYS in the TAPE DECK. Storm listens for a few beats, as if letting the horn cool him out after the liquor store action. Then he ejects the tape decisively -- reaches into his camera case, pulls out the surveillance tape from tonight. He punches this tape into the deck. Storm listens. The part where the Shadow Man with the hat (Trent) says, "You'll be well compensated. Money now -- and more when I get into that office. You can take that to the bank." Storm CRANKS UP the VOLUME. STORM I know that voice. Who the hell is it? He rewinds the tape -- EXT. STREET - STORM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Storm's car turns into the block, slows approaching his house. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 15. INT. STORM'S CAR - TRAVELING - NIGHT Still listening. Can't place the voice. Punches " eject," the tape pops half-out. Into the driveway, Storm activates the garage door remote. INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Storm's car stops, headlights go out. The garage door closes. Storm gets out, carrying his camera case, champagne and the big stuffed toy. He takes a couple of steps toward the door to the house, then stops, remembering - He leans back into the car, yanks the surveillance tape from the deck. Hands full, he tucks the tape into a inside pocket of his Versace vest. INT. STORM'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT It's late; just a courtesy lamp left on for Storm. He pulls the tapes and recorder from his case, stashes the case out of sight. He grabs a couple of champagne glasses -- INT. STORM'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY - STORM tiptoes toward the bedroom. Felicia appears at the top of the stairs, wearing panties and a teddy top. She smiles seeing the big toy, shooshes Storm -- ANGLE FROM SONNY'S ROOM Storm stops outside his boy's room, looking in. Felicia tiptoes up beside him. Sonny sprawls loose-limbed on the bed in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas. STORM Wish I could sleep like that. FELICIA Maybe I can help you. She tugs Storm sexily toward the bedroom -- SONNY Is that for me, Dad? Storm stops, toy in hand -- STORM You faker. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 16. He comes into the room, sits on the edge of Sonny's bed -- tousling his son's hair with great affection. Sonny takes the stuffed toy sleepily, pulls it into bed beside him. SONNY E.T. lost. Storm knows E.T. is not just a movie character to Sonny; he's a real person. STORM Who won? SONNY I dunno. Candy. STORM Candy? FELICIA (from doorway) Mahatma Candy. He was a great man. Storm moves closer to his son. He sees how much E.T.'s loss has hurt his son, and wants to make it better. STORM (very gently) You know why E.T. lost? SONNY Why? STORM Cause they only let grownups vote. If kids had voted -- SONNY (cheered by this) -- We would have gave E.T. everything! STORM We would have given him everything. SONNY Yeah. Storm starts to rise. SONNY (wants him to stay) Daddy -- tell me a knock-knock. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 17. STORM You know the rules. (pulls covers up) One joke a day. I have to make 'em last. Already Sonny is most of the way back to sleep. Storm kisses his forehead -- INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INSERT - JOHNNY CARSON - 1982 "TONIGHT SHOW" In mid-joke behind his famous desk. Storm and Felicia forms obscure part of the screen -- standing close to each other, beside the bed. Felicia helps him off with his jacket. FELICIA There's blood on your jacket. STORM It's okay. It's not mine. Storm's hands dump his stuff onto the bedside table -- camera, tapes from case, gun. He gathers the glasses, pours champagne. Felicia watches her husband. She plainly loves him deeply -- and is held and excited by his contradictions. They come closer together, clinking their glasses, sipping. FELICIA If people knew how sweet you are, they'd never be scared of you. She kisses him seductively, unbuttoning his shirt at the collar. Storm still wears the vest. FELICIA I'm not scared of you. STORM Maybe you should be. FELICIA (closer, increasing passion) Why? Are you planning on doing something to me? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 18. STORM A couple of things crossed my mind, in the car coming home. Another kiss. They get their glasses out of the way, Storm lowers his wife languidly onto the bed. They begin kissing more deeply. Storm helps Felicia slide out of her teddy top; her beautiful breasts rise into the light. Storm begins to kiss them, she moans with pleasure. The lovemaking increases in intensity, Felicia's hand groping to open Storm's pants. He begins to help her, guiding her legs apart -- FELICIA (in mid-kiss) Door's open. Not missing a beat, Storm grabs a heavy pillow, heaves it -- without looking -- at the door. ANGLE FROM HALLWAY - BEDROOM DOOR The pillow strikes it, starting it swinging closed. Storm and Felicia's forms, on the bed, are eclipsed. Sound from the "CARSON SHOW" DROPS DOWN - INT. STORM'S HOUSE - ANOTHER HALLWAY - NIGHT TWO MEN -- carrying shotguns, faces hidden by masks -- move soundlessly down a hall. A terrible alien presence within this normal American household. The men turn a corner into a different hallway -- MEN'S POV - MOVING - HAND-HELD At the end of this new hall: the bedroom door. ANGLE - TWO MEN creeping closer. BEDROOM - STORM AND FELICIA Their passion highly aroused now. Felicia's legs wrapped tight around Storm... their breathing, combined with the TV sound, seems like it would obscure the men's silent movement out in the hall. But: Storm suddenly freezes. Listening. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 19. FELICIA (frightened) What? Storm lunges for his .45 on the nightstand. Suddenly LOUD and VIOLENT CRASH and the bedroom door is kicked in. Two dark figures with shotguns leveled fill the door. There is an eruption of GUNFIRE and blinding muzzle blast and smoke. In the dim light for a moment we do not know what has happened, then: STORM'S POV We see one of the assassins thrown backward, jacket blown open at the shoulder. SWITCH TO: ASSASSIN'S PARTNER'S POV We see Storm hit badly at close range. He takes it in the right center mass. It looks like his right arm is torn off as his .45 is literally blown across the room. Felicia is now hysterically screaming -- but not for long -- as she is mortally wounded. We are sure Storm will collapse and this horror will be over, but Storm rushes the remaining assailant, and tilting his body sideways as he enters, he avoids one more ferocious BLAST. The momentum of Storm's quick spin catches the assailant perfectly, and like a fast spinning top slammed against another, Storm has the puppet by the strings. He clamps down with his left and only good hand on the assailant's right hand, and uses it against the gun as a tool for more torque. Spinning him around until he is at the peak of his circle, Storm with all his might spins his whole body in the opposite direction quickly, using the whipping effect of his shoulder and hip to snap the assailant's wrist and flip him violently. There is a LOUD CRACK and scream as he lands on his head and neck, and then -- from the side, point-blank --another ferocious SHOTGUN BLAST -- Storm is blown into the air and back onto the bed from which he came. QUICK CUTAWAY TO: INT. KARL BECKER'S BEDROOM - ANGLE ON DIFFERENT SHOTGUNS BOOMING! Karl (Storm's partner) being BLASTED. No chance at all as he takes the full brunt of MULTIPLE BLASTS. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 20. We recognize the large nautical wristwatch he wears as he falls to the floor -- BACK TO: INT. STORM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The scene of slaughter we just left. Now in perfect stillness and quiet we HIGH ANGLE PAN DOWN the room in ... SLOW MOTION: Down feathers slowly float down toward the terribly sad and lifeless bodies of Storm and Felicia. Holes pepper walls; lamps obliterated; beds and pillows not even a semblance of their original form; crimson red and white smoke. BEDROOM - NORMAL SPEED The two assassins recover themselves. Bigger Man's shoulder: limp and bloody. LITTLE MAN (re: Big Man's wound) Man. BIG MAN (he's tough) Get to work. They do. Big Man collects tapes and camera from the bedside table, replacing them with large lumps of cocaine and cash. Then lie coolly places something on the night stand directly in front of the lifeless cop's face -- it is a tooth. Little Man rifles Storm's pockets, including the Versace jacket beside the bed. LITTLE MAN (patting Storm's pants pockets) You got the tapes? BIG MAN (re: what he grabbed from the table) I got a shitload of 'em. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 21. Little Man is just about to search Storm's vest when he looks up and sees: BEDROOM DOORWAY - SONNY Storm's little boy stands there, in his Woody Woodpecker pajamas, holding the stuffed toy. He stares in numb horror. LITTLE MAN (FORD) without hesitation pumps his SHOTGUN, aims at the boy. Sonny dashes from the bedroom as the BLAST rips the door behind him! SONNY'S ROOM - SONNY streaks to the window, heaves against the sash -- HALLWAY - TWO MEN Big Man (Dunne) boots Sonny's door open, crashes in -- SONNY'S ROOM - WINDOW Sonny plunges out just as both men OPEN FIRE. They pound ROUND after ROUND into and through the window, blowing GLASS everywhere and ripping the windowframe and half the wall to shreds. An ALARM begins BLARING. The men glance to each other, flee. EXT. STORM'S HOUSE - FRONT WALK - NIGHT ALARM CONTINUING. The men emerge walking swiftly but not running, shotguns tight to their sides. They cross the street to a sedan parked in shadows. Up goes the trunk: in go shotguns, plastic bag with tapes -- and their masks, which they have just torn off. INT. SEDAN - NIGHT Little Man whips behind the wheel. He is Jack Ford, an extremely bad hombre we've never seen before. He STARTS the CAR. Big Man in the passenger seat. We recognize him! He is Max Dunne -- the burly man who took Storm's phone call in the police station and passed the receiver to Karl. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 22. DUNNE (BIG MAN) Punch it. EXT. STREET - NIGHT The sedan speeds away. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING SHOT - LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY - NIGHT A tall and heavy Irishman, built like a tank, with beautiful baby-blue eyes. He hurries down the corridor, radiating intensity. Several cops with him. They turn a corner into a second corridor. O'MALLEY Jesus Christ. O'MALLEYS POV - CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EMERGENCY ROOM Jammed with cops, officials, newspeople. A circus. O'MALLEY strides forward into the crush. ASSEMBLYMAN TRENT AND CAPTAIN HOLLAND side by side in the mob scene. We recognize the two Shadow Men from the wharf -- the ones who ordered Storm's murder. Under the glare of a mini-cam lamp, a female TV reporter tries to get Trent to talk. TRENT (emotional) knew Storm from when I was City Attorney ... and he was a young homicide detective | imsdb | How many times the word 'imsdb' appears in the text? | 3 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | miracle | How many times the word 'miracle' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | isabella | How many times the word 'isabella' appears in the text? | 1 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | pigeon | How many times the word 'pigeon' appears in the text? | 1 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | shows | How many times the word 'shows' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | very | How many times the word 'very' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | sz | How many times the word 'sz' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | citoles | How many times the word 'citoles' appears in the text? | 0 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | cheat | How many times the word 'cheat' appears in the text? | 0 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | animals | How many times the word 'animals' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | r | How many times the word 'r' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | loaded | How many times the word 'loaded' appears in the text? | 0 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | too | How many times the word 'too' appears in the text? | 3 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | a170 | How many times the word 'a170' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | sunday | How many times the word 'sunday' appears in the text? | 0 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | cleaning | How many times the word 'cleaning' appears in the text? | 1 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | brings | How many times the word 'brings' appears in the text? | 3 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | charged | How many times the word 'charged' appears in the text? | 0 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | means | How many times the word 'means' appears in the text? | 2 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | fourteen | How many times the word 'fourteen' appears in the text? | 0 |
Harriet's list. And five more she missed - three I'm sure about. Five more? Blomkvist stares at her but she's turned back to her laptop, bringing up police reports and crime scene photos. SALANDER Rebecka was the first, like you thought ... M.H., is Mari Holmberg - a prostitute in Kalmar - murdered in 1954. Leviticus verse 20, line 18. 91. 91. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST (reading from it) "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has made naked her fountain and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." Blomkvist doesn't see a connection. SALANDER She was raped and stabbed, but the cause of death was suffocation with a sanitary napkin. R.L. Rakel Lunde, 1957 - Salander brings up more crime photos - SALANDER Cleaning woman and part-time palm reader, tied up with a clothesline, gagged, raped, head crushed with a rock. Leviticus 20:27. BLOMKVIST "A woman who is a medium or sorcerer shall be put to death by stoning." She's lit a cigarette and brings up the next photos - BLOMKVIST I only smoke outside. SALANDER (ignoring the comment) Sara Witt, 1964. Daughter of a pastor. Tied to her bed, raped, charred in the fire that burned down her house. Leviticus - BLOMKVIST 21:9. "The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with (fire) - SALANDER (on top of his last word) Magda Lovisa Sjoberg, 1960 - Several photos of a dead woman and dead cow - SALANDER Found in a barn, stabbed and raped with farm tools. A cow in the next stall with its throat slit, its blood splashed on her, hers on it. 92. 92. BLOMKVIST Leviticus 20:16 - "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast, their blood is upon (them) - SALANDER (again on his last word) Lea Persson, 1962 - A photo of a pretty girl in riding jodhpurs, petting a horse, and several more of her dead naked body on a wet cement floor surrounded by tropical fish. SALANDER Found by her sister in their pet shop - raped, beaten. The killer uncaged the animals, smashed the aquariums. There was a parakeet inside her. Leviticus 26:21/22. Before Blomkvist can find the verse, she's on to the next ones. More photos of murdered girls - SALANDER Eva Gustavsson, 1960. A runaway. Raped, strangled, a burnt pigeon tied around her neck. Lena Andersson, 1967, a student. Raped, stabbed, decapitated - BLOMKVIST Okay - SALANDER I'm not done - BLOMKVIST It's all right, we're looking for a serial murderer ... But what does it have to do with a 16-year-old girl on an island? Salander, as we know, is not paid to give her opinion. She's a hunter/gatherer, not an analyst. But Blomkvist asked, so she gives it - SALANDER She was looking for him, too. 167 OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 167 93. 93. 168 EXT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 168 The silence they just left has followed them out here. The island, more than ever, feels haunted as Blomkvist looks off, smoking. BLOMKVIST Rape. Torture. Fire. Animals. Religion. Anything I'm missing? SALANDER The names. They're all Biblical. The first woman, the whore, the Virgin Mary - Sara, Rakel - all from the Old Testament. BLOMKVIST Which means they're Jewish names. He glances off to Harald's dark house. BLOMKVIST If there's one thing the Vangers have more than their share of, it's Nazis. There's one of them. The Nazi's shadowy form crosses behind the shades ... 169 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 169 He pokes at embers in the fireplace to try coax some flames. BLOMKVIST I can see why Armansky values you so highly. Your work is very good. SALANDER It interests me. He takes a blanket from the back of a chair. BLOMKVIST I'll take the couch. You can have the bed. SALANDER I can sleep on a couch. BLOMKVIST So can I. She takes the blanket from him and sits with it on the couch. He watches her a moment. 94. 94. BLOMKVIST Okay. (heads off to the bedroom) Good night. SALANDER Night. She switches off the lamp. Then, in a moment, in the dark - SALANDER Harriet's name isn't. BLOMKVIST Isn't what. SALANDER Jewish. A170 EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING - ESTABLISHING A170 170 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 170 Salander browses through an iPhoto album of old photographs of Blomkvist and the motorcycle he mentioned. In some of them, Erika is with him. In all of them, he's wearing a leather jacket not unlike Salander's. BLOMKVIST O/S What are you doing? He's just woken up in a tangle of blankets on the couch to see her at his laptop. She closes the album, leaving on the screen what she was looking at before: his iMovie of the parade and some annotated police files. SALANDER Going over your notes. BLOMKVIST They're encrypted. She gives him a don't-be-a-child look. SALANDER Have some coffee. BLOMKVIST I will. And then we'll have a talk about what's yours and what's mine. Blomkvist drags himself up, pours himself some coffee, adds some milk. 95. 95. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER It's amazing what you figured out from the parade photos. BLOMKVIST Thank you. SALANDER Too bad you don't have hers. BLOMKVIST Whose. She doesn't say. He comes over. She plays the iMovie, stops on a frame before Harriet turns her head. Points to a young couple standing among the people behind her. The woman has an Instamatic camera in her hand. SALANDER Her. She advances to the next frame: The woman has raised the camera to her eye. And the next: Harriet turning her head in foreground while in the background the flash cube atop the woman's Instamatic flares slightly. Blomkvist is stunned, by both the fact he didn't notice it before, and what it means: Though the woman is taking a snapshot of the parade, she could have inadvertently included in it whatever - whoever - Harriet saw at that moment across the street. BLOMKVIST Excuse me. He takes over his laptop from her, finds the later Courier photos he didn't include in his iMovie, after Harriet has left. In one, the couple is moving off the other way. In another, they're getting in a parked car to leave. He sharpens the Photoshop contrast. The rear license plate is partly visible, but too small for him to make out even by squinting. BLOMKVIST Can you read that? SALANDER A, C, Three - the rest is blocked. 96. 96. He focuses on a decal on the car's back window. The letters are even small and blurrier, but she thinks she can make out - SALANDER N, something, R, S, J - BLOMKVIST Norsjo. SALANDER Then something, K, something, R, I, F, something, I - BLOMKVIST Carpentry. (points below the letters) Is that a phone number? SALANDER Too small to read. He gets up. Heads for the front door to smoke his cigarette outside - BLOMKVIST (ADR) I'm going to have to go to Norsjo. He opens the door to leave and sees on the porch - The charred corpse of the cat. Its legs - sawn off and arranged in the shape of a swastika - lie in the middle of a dark circle of blood. He seems too startled to move, but when Salander sees it, she immediately gets her camera and begins framing close-ups of the cat parts, and its head resting atop the seat of her motorcycle. Blomkvist stares off at Harald's house ... 171 OMIT: EXT. COTTAGE - MORNING 171 172 OMIT: INT. FRODE'S HOUSE - DAY 172 172A INT. HEDESTAD HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 172A As Frode scrolls through the photos of the dismembered cat on Salander's camera, horrified by them, she regards at a table across the room: Birger, Isabella and Gunner. BLOMKVIST I wouldn't think Harald would sign his name like this, would you? 97. 97. FRODE I can't say I know how he thinks. He might. BLOMKVIST Has anyone spoken to him about me since I've been here? FRODE Maybe Isabella. No one else. BLOMKVIST Could she do something like this? Frode glances off to her. She's staring at Salander. And turns to Birger. ISABELLA Who's this creature now? Frode takes one more look at the photos before - FRODE I'm calling this off. BLOMKVIST No. You're authorizing me to rent a car. 172AA INT. HOSPITAL - LATER - DAY 172AA Blomkvist and Salander coming down a corridor on their way out. BLOMKVIST I'm sorry if that was uncomfortable. SALANDER They don't bother me. BLOMKVIST I'm sure they're not used to people who look like you. SALANDER They don't like you either. 172B EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY 172B A car and a motorcycle split apart at an interchange - the Volvo to the north, Salander's Honda to the south. 173 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 173 Salander pulls her Honda into an underground garage. 98. 98. 174 INT. MILTON SECURITY - DAY 174 No one says hello to her - nor she to them - as she strides through the place to the tech room. INSERT: Cases snapped open revealing sophisticated surveillance equipment - several cameras, mounts, hand monitor, cables. TECH CLERK I can't give you any of this stuff without authorization from Mr. Armansky. SALANDER So call him. The clerk picks up a phone, but then sets it back down. Picks up the list again. TECH CLERK Next time, I'd prefer you fill out the proper paperwork. A175 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY A175 A Volvo speeds along a rural highway, far from Hedestad and the Vangers. 175 INT. VOLVO - MOVING - DAY 175 On the passenger seat - INSERT: the car rental agreement - a print of the parade photo of the couple getting into the car he was looking at with Salander on his laptop - and a hand- written note that reads - NORSJO SNICKERIFABRIK 175A EXT/INT. HIGHWAY / VOLVO - DAY 175A A POV through the windshield of a highway sign alerts him the Norsjo exit is coming up. 176 EXT. NORSJO - DAY 176 The main street of a very small town. The Volvo pulls to a stop outside its only hardware store. 177 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY 177 An ancient place with narrow aisles crammed with stuff. CLERK 1 Can I help you? 99. 99. The clerk - for what Blomkvist needs - is too young. BLOMKVIST I'm waiting for the older gentleman, thanks. He gestures to a clerk in his 60's helping a customer. 178 INT. HARDWARE STORE - LATER 178 The older clerk looks at the parade photo of the couple. BLOMKVIST The carpentry shop is gone. I don't know if he worked there or not. If he did, maybe he used to buy hardware here. CLERK 2 I don't recognize him. Sorry. BLOMKVIST I had to start somewhere. Thanks. As he gathers up the photos to leave - CLERK 2 I'm no detective, but I think I would've started at the retirement home. Blomkvist looks up. Not a bad idea. 178A INT. SALANDER'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - DAY 178A Salander checks a `mirror' of Bjurman's computer on her laptop. Skims one of the monthly reports she instructed him to write. A179 EXT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - ESTABLISHING A179 179 INT. RETIREMENT HOME - NORSJO - DAY 179 A group of elderly men and women in a rec room pass Blomkvist's photos around. One old man offers - FORSMAN This is Brannlund's kid. He was a contractor, the father. BLOMKVIST Brannlund. FORSMAN Assar. 100. 100. Blomkvist writes the name down. BLOMKVIST You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, the son? FORSMAN Next to his father at the cemetery. He was killed in an accident on a job site years ago. But she might be alive - (the woman in the picture) His widow. A180 EXT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - ESTABLISHING A180 180 INT. BRANNLUND HOUSE - DAY 180 She is still alive, and sitting across from Blomkvist in her living room as he takes out his photos - BLOMKVIST In 1966, you were in Hedestad with your husband. He shows her one of the photos. MILDRED Oh, my goodness, there we are. Who took this? BLOMKVIST Photographer at the local paper. She smiles at the picture; it brings back good memories. BLOMKVIST You were taking pictures, too. Which I'd very much like to see if by some miracle you still have them. MILDRED It wouldn't be a miracle. We were on our honeymoon. But why? Blomkvist thinks about making something up. Decides not to. Indicates Harriet in the photo - BLOMKVIST This girl was killed that day, soon after seeing something across the street that frightened her. MILDRED How awful. 101. 101. Blomkvist nods; Mildred takes a closer look at the photo. MILDRED She does look terrified. Mildred gets up with purpose, goes into another room, returns with a photo album. Leafs past wedding photos, to honeymoon photos and stops on the only one she took of the parade. She hands the album to Blomkvist. The snapshot shows the float with the harem girls in foreground, and - in the background, across the street - several out of focus figures - BLOMKVIST Would you mind if I made a copy of this? 181 EXT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 181 Establish. 182 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON 182 He gets in the elevator without really looking at the figure already in it. BJURMAN Ground, please. A finger presses it. The doors close and the elevator starts down. SALANDER How's your sex life? Bjurman, terrified, backs into a corner. She presses a button and the elevator jerks to a stop between floors. SALANDER I didn't care much for your last report. (which she has in hand) It felt perfunctory, like your heart wasn't in it. Let's see a little more enthusiasm for my recovery in next month's. BJURMAN I under(stand) - SALANDER Don't speak. I don't want to hear your voice. Just nod. He nods. 102. 102. SALANDER Start looking for a shrink you can bribe to swear under oath he can find absolutely nothing wrong with me. He nods. She gets the elevator going again and steps closer to him. He tries bowing his head like a dog being scolded. She lifts his chin like he did to her before he raped her. SALANDER And stop visiting tattoo removal websites or I'll do it again - right here. She touches his forehead. He backs away. The doors open and she steps out, leaving him in there, looking too frightened to move. The doors close. 183 INT. COTTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 183 Having returned and scanned Mildred's snapshot into Photoshop, Blomkvist better defines on his laptop its background and the people in frame across the street from where Harriet was standing: INSERT: Couples, kids, a clown. INSERT: The watch repair shop clock that reads, 2:00. INSERT: A figure standing slightly apart from the other people. It's too blurry to make out his face or age, but he has light brown hair, dark slacks, and a dark blazer with some kind of patch on the pocket. 184 EXT. STOCKHOLM - LATE AFTERNOON 184 Salander blasts onto the highway headed north. 185 INT COTTAGE - AFTERNOON 185 Blomkvist regards Isabella's two photos on the wall. In one she's a stunning young woman. In the other, the old wreck she's become. He glances to her husband Gottfried's photo. Where a second more current photo of him should go is a Courier article about his drowning in 1965. That's when Isabella changed - and this is where it happened - in this old house out on the point. He untacks the article - 103. 103. 186 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 186 The boathouse hasn't fared well. Neither has the dock Blomkvist has to walk on to reach it. He glances inside - no boat, just dark water slapping against the pilings - looks back to the shore at the long-uninhabited cabin. 187 INT. CABIN - LATER - LATE AFTERNOON 187 No electricity but enough light spills through the open door for him to see the neglected, shadowy interior: Beds with bare, or no, mattresses. Sticks of furniture. Old water-stained books strewn around. Beer bottles and other debris left by intrepid Hedestad teenagers. It's creepy, even if you weren't alone in it, knowing what you know. He kneels to look at some of the books. Mickey Spillane, a bird guidebook, something called The Evil Empire about the USSR, a children's book. He opens this last one and sees "Harriet" scrawled in a very young child's hand. 188 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATE AFTERNOON 188 Having climbed the cliff above the cabin, he finds himself at the highest point on the island. Stops to rest at the ruins of a fort. A piece of the stone wall next to his head suddenly erupts. As fragments tear into his scalp, he hears the delayed crack and echo of the rifle shot - He throws himself to the ground. Crawls desperately around and behind the ruins. Sees his shirt is bloody but can't feel a wound under it. Touches his face and finds the blood is coming from his forehead. He can see no one, and is almost relieved since if he could it would mean they were walking toward him, which would mean he would soon be shot dead, point blank. He has to get out of here before that happens. Behind him - the rocky cliff he just climbed. Ahead of him - a clearing leading to woods. Really only one choice - He runs for the trees. Dives through a curtain of thicket and stinging nettles that tear at his arms and hands. Crawls the rest of the way to the woods on his elbows and toes like an infantryman. Safe for the moment, he figures, hidden in the woods, he looks at the sun low in the sky, and decides to wait. 104. 104. 189 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 189 Salander, returned from Stockholm, moves around the cottage - inside and out - installing the equipment she brought from Milton Security: Motion detectors - security cameras - software that bisects a PC screen into quadrants showing night-vision views of each corner of the cottage. 190 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 190 191 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 191 A figure appears on a quadrant of Salander's surveillance PC. Comes past the motorcycle and nearly reaches the porch before she hears - BLOMKVIST O/S It's me. She opens the door to see him covered in blood, pressing a torn piece of his shirt to his bleeding head - and almost gasps. BLOMKVIST It's that bad? 192 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 192 She turns the bathtub's hot water tap - BLOMKVIST Is it still bleeding? (touches the wound) It's still bleeding ... why is it still bleeding ... She pulls a length of dental floss from its case - BLOMKVIST (ADR) Is that dental floss? SALANDER Yes. Splits it in two thinner lengths with her chewed finger nails - Feeds one of the lengths of floss through the eye of a needle - BLOMKVIST What is that - (he can see it's a needle) Is that necessary? 105. 105. SALANDER Yes. BLOMKVIST We can't just tape it? SALANDER No. She perches on the edge of the tub where he sits - still in his pants - half-submerged in tepid water - bottle of vodka in his hand. BLOMKVIST Did you sterilize that? SALANDER No. BLOMKVIST You didn't? She splashes some of the vodka on the needle. Most of it goes in the water. Hands the bottle back to him. SALANDER Drink some more. He takes a swig from the vodka bottle. She reaches to his face with the needle and floss - BLOMKVIST Careful, it's my eye. SALANDER Don't move. It takes all he's got not to move, and even that isn't enough as she first sticks the needle through the flesh. He pulls away with a groan. She just looks at him. Waits for him to take another swig of vodka to steel himself. She pierces him a second time, draws the floss through the skin. And after that it doesn't seem to be so bad. As she works, his eyes glance to hers with a mixture of dread and gratitude, but hers are focused on the work. Hers then briefly glance to his, but now his are down. 192A INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192A He comes out of the bathroom in his soaking wet pants and collapses on the bed. She works to pull his pants off. 106. 106. BLOMKVIST What am I doing here ... why did I ever come up here ... He touches the wound and looks at his fingers - BLOMKVIST It's too dark to see ... did it stop bleeding ... I think maybe it has ... it still fucking hurts ... 192B INT. COTTAGE - A FEW MINUTES LATER - NIGHT 192B She regards the surveillance monitor, the night-vision views of the cottage. She can't believe it but she feels vigilant more for his sake than her own. She goes to a window and looks out. Sees her own reflection in the glass and studies it. Then kicks her boots off. 193 INT. COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT 193 She comes into the bedroom in her t-shirt and underwear. He's still muttering without looking at her. BLOMKVIST It wasn't an accident ... Somebody was shooting at me ... It's insane ... these people are insane ... SALANDER No one's shooting at you now. She pulls her t-shirt over his stitched-up head, cocooning it against her breasts. Silence. Then - BLOMKVIST I'm pretty sure this isn't a good idea. SALANDER Why. He extracts his head from the cocoon and looks at her. BLOMKVIST Apart from the fact that I'm old, we work together. SALANDER You work with what's-her-name. That's worked out for you. He nods. That's true. Then - 107. 107. BLOMKVIST I have some standards of behavior, believe it or not. SALANDER You need to stop talking. She climbs on top of him. 194 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - NIGHT 194 Afterwards. She opens his dwindling pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Glances over to him lying next to her. He's not looking at the smoke but rather the startling tattoos on her bare legs and arms. Eventually - SALANDER You want me to open a window? He shakes his head no. Reaches for the cigarette. Takes a drag. Hands it back. 195 INT. COTTAGE - MORNING 195 He wakes. Comes out to find a proper place setting on the table. Sits with Salander. Listens to that awkward, but not altogether unpleasant silence you always hear in this situation the next morning. She breaks it - SALANDER I like working with you. BLOMKVIST I like working with you, too. 196 OMIT - INT. HOSPITAL CAFETERIA - DAY 196 196A EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196A Establish. 196B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - DAY 196B Frode and Martin stare at Blomkvist's unprofessionally sutured head wound; Salander near him like an emaciated bodyguard. FRODE People hunt on the island, Mikael. Gunner's out there shooting something almost every day for his dinner. It could have been a stray shot. MARTIN Not from Gunner. If he wanted to shoot him, he'd have shot him. 108. 108. FRODE We get poachers. They're not always such great shots. MARTIN Or he's right, Dirch. What if he is? This has to stop. Frode regards Blomkvist. FRODE Do you want to stop? BLOMKVIST I have police reports, photos, Henrik's notes, my own notes, and Lisbeth's research. What I don't have are Vanger Industries records. That's what I want. FRODE Why? Blomkvist doesn't say. Only - BLOMKVIST Will you authorize it? FRODE I could but why on earth would I? BLOMKVIST Because I'm asking. FRODE The private corporate records. (Blomkvist nods) How far back? BLOMKVIST All the way. Frode exchanges a look with Martin. BLOMKVIST Henrik said I have access to everything I need. This is what I need. FRODE That's not what he meant. BLOMKVIST Let's ask him. 109. 109. FRODE He's not well enough to ask. BLOMKVIST I'd be happy to sign a nondisclosure statement, if that helps you. FRODE Excuse us a moment. Frode and Martin step away to confer in private. MARTIN I think Henrik would say yes. FRODE That's why he has me. To protect him from himself. This is insane. MARTIN What do we have to hide? FRODE Over the course of 120 years of doing business? Plenty. MARTIN If he needs this to do his job, he should have permission. This goes against every privileged, confidential bone in the lawyer's body. He can only stare at Blomkvist and Salander across the room, wondering why he hired either one of them. 197 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - LATER - DAY 197 Blomkvist and Salander walk down the road from Martin's house. SALANDER What am I looking for? BLOMKVIST Any connections between the company's holdings and the towns where the women were killed ... and everything about Frode. 198 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAY 198 Vanger Industries' corporate archives are kept in the oldest building in the town's warehouse district. The rumble of Salander's motorcycle announces her arrival. 110. 110. 199 INT. COTTAGE - SAME TIME - DAY 199 Like someone visiting a relative they never liked, Blomkvist reviews yet again the photos from `that day' - scrolling through the bridge accident shots - He stops. One of the figures has something in his hand he hadn't noticed before. It and the figure are somewhat blurred in movement - but it looks like a gun. He sharpens the contrast to reveal that the gun is in fact a Hasselblad-type camera. Looks at the man's face - then at his wall of Vanger family photos - unhappy to see it matches Harald ... 200 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - LATER - DAY 200 Carbon-copied or original documents from the 50's and 60's surround Salander like the water around the island: Financial analyses, annual reports, internal memoranda, trade union agreements, brittle news clippings, corporate staff photographs, one of which she's regarding now: A much younger Frode, posing against a wall of law books. 200A INT. COTTAGE - DAY 200A The photo of Harald in his Nazi uniform on the wall. BLOMKVIST V/O Your father was taking pictures that day no one has seen. 201 INT. CECILIA'S HOUSE - DAY 201 Cecilia looks at the blurred bridge photo of Harald with the camera in his hand. Then at Blomkvist, coolly. BLOMKVIST I'd like to if I could. CECILIA So ask him. BLOMKVIST I was wondering if you could do that. CECILIA I don't speak to him, as you know. BLOMKVIST You couldn't make an exception in my case. He gives her his most disarming smile. It usually works with women, but doesn't seem to have much affect on her. 111. 111. CECILIA Are you afraid to be in the same room with him? I'm not saying you shouldn't be. BLOMKVIST You won't help me? CECILIA Sorry. 202 INT. VANGER INDUSTRIES - DAY 202 Salander gets up and crosses to an anteroom where an unhappy older woman - the archive manager - seems to be doing nothing but waiting for the strange girl to leave. LINDGREN Are you finished? SALANDER No. I need to know where all the factories, offices and projects were from 1949 to 1966. LINDGREN You already have everything. SALANDER I don't. Nothing on subsidiary corporations, partnerships, or suppliers. LINDGREN Then you'll have to do without. SALANDER Mr. Frode said I have access to whatever I need, and I need this. LINDGREN He said you have access to this floor. SALANDER Call him. The woman stares at her for a long moment, then picks up the phone. 203 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 203 Stairs lead them to a higher floor. The woman climbs a step-stool. Pulls a couple of large binders from a high shelf. Salander doesn't help her off the stool and the woman looks at her even more unhappily than before. 112. 112. 204 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 204 The blinds, as usual, closed. Couple of lamps throw shadows on the walls which display hunting and military trophies - wild game heads, sabers and vintage firearms - some of Harald's dearer photographs - some photographs in dusty frames. Blomkvist, alone in the room, looks at them: Swedish Nazi leader in the 1930's. HARALD Sven Olof Lindholm. The 92-year-old comes into the room from the kitchen, followed by a housekeeper with a tea tray. Indicates the younger man in the photo, also in a Nazi uniform, that Blomkvist is looking at. HARALD Me. Blomkvist nods. Has no idea what to say. But Harald waits for more of a response. Finally - BLOMKVIST Handsome. HARALD (taps another) Birger Furugard. Me. (and another) Per Engdahl. (and another) Me. Blomkvist's eyes shift to a bolt-action Mauser infantry rifle displayed on a shelf ... HARALD But your interest is in my more candid photographic work. 205 INT. ARCHIVES - DAY 205 Spread out on the desk: A map of Sweden showing the factory sites and other Vanger holdings - and one she made earlier where the nine women were murdered. Dots appear at the same locations on both. On a handwritten list of the victims, she puts a check next to Rebecka Jacobsson, 1949, Hedestad - moves on to Mari Holmberg, 1954, Kalmar - begins sifting through the mountain of Vanger Industries clippings from that year - 113. 113. 206 INT. HARALD'S DEN - DAY 206 A bony Nazi pouring tea in a shadowy room with you is bad, but the rabbit-print tea cozy only makes it worse. | dragon | How many times the word 'dragon' appears in the text? | 2 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | across | How many times the word 'across' appears in the text? | 3 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | make | How many times the word 'make' appears in the text? | 3 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | beside | How many times the word 'beside' appears in the text? | 1 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | putty | How many times the word 'putty' appears in the text? | 1 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | muffled | How many times the word 'muffled' appears in the text? | 0 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | picked | How many times the word 'picked' appears in the text? | 3 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | inaccurate | How many times the word 'inaccurate' appears in the text? | 0 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | coming | How many times the word 'coming' appears in the text? | 3 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | poor | How many times the word 'poor' appears in the text? | 3 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | kept | How many times the word 'kept' appears in the text? | 1 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | prate | How many times the word 'prate' appears in the text? | 0 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | congratulations | How many times the word 'congratulations' appears in the text? | 1 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | leaving | How many times the word 'leaving' appears in the text? | 0 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | akin | How many times the word 'akin' appears in the text? | 0 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | huge | How many times the word 'huge' appears in the text? | 2 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | mexican | How many times the word 'mexican' appears in the text? | 1 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | who | How many times the word 'who' appears in the text? | 1 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | breast | How many times the word 'breast' appears in the text? | 0 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | pair | How many times the word 'pair' appears in the text? | 2 |
He believed he discerned the symbol of the revolution in these clouds of dust and smoke that climbed upward together, met at the crest of the hill and, a moment after, were lost.... "By heaven, now I see what it all means!" He sketched a vast gesture, pointing to the station. Locomotives belched huge clouds of black dense smoke rising in columns; the trains were overloaded with fugitives who had barely managed to escape from the captured town. Suddenly he felt a sharp blow in the stomach. As though his legs were putty, he rolled off the rock. His ears buzzed... Then darkness ... silence ... eternity.... PART TWO I Demetrio, nonplussed, scratched his head: "Look here, don't ask me any more questions.... You gave me the eagle I wear on my hat, didn't you? All right then; you just tell me: 'Demetrio, do this or do that,' and that's all there is to it." To champagne, that sparkles and foams as the beaded bubbles burst at the brim of the glass, Demetrio preferred the native tequila, limpid and fiery. The soldiers sat in groups about the tables in the restaurant, ragged men, filthy with sweat, dirt and smoke, their hair matted, wild, disheveled. "I killed two colonels," one man clamored in a guttural harsh voice. He was a small fat fellow, with embroidered hat and chamois coat, wearing a light purple handkerchief about his neck. "They were so Goddamned fat they couldn't even run. By God, I wish you could have seen them, tripping and stumbling at every step they took, climbing up the hill, red as tomatoes, their tongues hanging out like hounds. 'Don't run so fast, you lousy beggars!' I called after them. 'I'm not so fond of frightened geese--stop, You bald-headed bastards: I won't harm you! You needn't worry!' By God, they certainly fell for it. Pop, pop! One shot for each of them, and a well-earned rest for a pair of poor sinners, be damned to them!" "I couldn't get a single one of their generals!" said a swarthy man who sat in one corner between the wall and the bar, holding his rifle between his outstretched legs. "I sighted one: a fellow with a hell of a lot of gold plastered all over him. His gold chevrons shone like a Goddamned sunset. And I let him go by, fool that I was. He took off his handkerchief and waved it. I stood there with my mouth wide open like a fool! Then I ducked and he started shooting, bullet after bullet. I let him kill a poor cargador. Then I said: 'My turn, now! Holy Virgin, Mother of God! Don't let me miss this son of a bitch.' But, by Christ, he disappeared. He was riding a hell of a fine nag; he went by me like lightning! There was another poor fool coming up the road. He got it and turned the prettiest somersault you ever saw!" Talk flew from lip to lip, each soldier vying with his fellow, snatching the words from the other's mouth. As they declaimed passionately, women with olive, swarthy skins, bright eyes, and teeth of ivory, with revolvers at their waists, cartridge-belts across their breasts, and broad Mexican hats on their heads, wove their way like stray street curs in and out among groups. A vulgar wench, with rouged cheeks and dark brown arms and neck, gave a great leap and landed on the bar near Demetrio's table. He turned his head toward her and literally collided with a pair of lubric eyes under a narrow forehead and thick, straight hair, parted in the middle. The door opened wide. Anastasio, Pancracio, Quail, and Meco filed in, dazed. Anastasio uttered a cry of surprise and stepped forward to shake hands with the little fat man wearing a charro suit and a lavender bandanna. A pair of old friends, met again. So warm was their embrace, so tightly they clutched each other that the blood rushed to their heads, they turned purple. "Look here, Demetrio, I want the honor of introducing you to Blondie. He's a real friend, you know. I love him like a brother. You must get to know him, Chief, he's a man! Do you remember that damn jail at Escobedo, where we stayed together for over a year?" Without removing his cigar from his lips, Demetrio, buried in a sullen silence amid the bustle and uproar, offered his hand and said: "I'm delighted to meet you!" "So your name is Demetrio Macias?" the girl asked suddenly. Seated on the bar, she swung her legs; at every swing, the toes of her shoes touched Demetrio's back. "Yes: I'm Demetrio Macias!" he said, scarcely turning toward her. Indifferently, she continued to swing her legs, displaying her blue stockings with ostentation. "Hey, War Paint, what are you doing here? Step down and have a drink!" said the man called Blondie. The girl accepted readily and boldly thrust her way through the crowd to a chair facing Demetrio. "So you're the famous Demetrio Macias, the hero of Zacatecas?" the girl asked. Demetrio bowed assent, while Blondie, laughing, said: "You're a wise one, War Paint. You want to sport a general!" Without understanding Blondie's words, Demetrio raised his eyes to hers; they gazed at each other like two dogs sniffing one another with distrust. Demetrio could not resist her furiously provocative glances; he was forced to lower his eyes. From their seats, some of Natera's officers began to hurl obscenities at War Paint. Without paying the slightest attention, she said: "General Natera is going to hand you out a little general's eagle. Put it here and shake on it, boy!" She stuck out her hand at Demetrio and shook it with the strength of a man. Demetrio, melting to the congratulations raining down upon him, ordered champagne. "I don't want no more to drink," Blondie said to the waiter, "I'm feeling sick. Just bring me some ice water." "I want something to eat," said Pancracio. "Bring me anything you've got but don't make it chili or beans!" Officers kept coming in; presently the restaurant was crowded. Small stars, bars, eagles and insignia of every sort or description dotted their hats. They wore wide silk bandannas around their necks, large diamond rings on their fingers, large heavy gold watch chains across their breasts. "Here, waiter," Blondie cried, "I ordered ice water. And I'm not begging for it either, see? Look at this bunch of bills. I'll buy you, your wife, and all you possess, see? Don't tell me there's none left--I don't care a damn about that! It's up to you to find some way to get it and Goddamned quick, too. I don't like to play about; I get mad when I'm crossed.... By God, didn't I tell you I wouldn't stand for any backchat? You won't bring it to me, eh? Well, take this...." A heavy blow sent the waiter reeling to the floor. "That's the sort of man I am, General Macias! I'm clean-shaven, eh? Not a hair on my chin? Do you know why? Well, I'll tell you! You see I get mad easy as hell; and when there's nobody to pick on, I pull my hair until my temper passes. If I hadn't pulled my beard hair by hair, I'd have died a long time ago from sheer anger!" "It does you no good to go to pieces when you're angry," a man affirmed earnestly from below a hat that covered his head as a roof does a house. "When I was up at Torreon I killed an old lady who refused to sell me some enchiladas. She was angry, I can tell you; I got no enchiladas but I felt satisfied anyhow!" "I killed a storekeeper at Parral because he gave me some change and there were two Huerta bills in it," said a man with a star on his hat and precious stones on his black, calloused hands. "Down in Chihuahua I killed a man because I always saw him sitting at the table whenever I went to eat. I hated the looks of him so I just killed him! What the hell could I do!" "Hmm! I killed...." The theme is inexhaustible. By dawn, when the restaurant was wild with joy and the floor dotted with spittle, young painted girls from the suburbs had mingled freely among the dark northern women. Demetrio pulled out his jeweled gold watch, asking Anastasio Montanez to tell him the time. Anastasio glanced at the watch, then, poking his head out of a small window, gazed at the starry sky. "The Pleiades are pretty low in the west. I guess it won't be long now before daybreak...." Outside the restaurant, the shouts, laughter and song of the drunkards rang through the air. Men galloped wildly down the streets, the hoofs of their horses hammering on the sidewalks. From every quarter of the town pistols spoke, guns belched. Demetrio and the girl called War Paint staggered tipsily hand in hand down the center of the street, bound for the hotel. II "What damned fools," said War Paint convulsed with laughter! "Where the hell do you come from?..... Soldiers don't sleep in hotels and inns any more....... Where do you come from? You just go anywhere you like and pick a house that pleases you, see. When you go there, make yourself at home and don't ask anyone for anything. What the hell is the use of the revolution? Who's it for? For the folks who live in towns? We're the city folk now, see? Come on, Pancracio, hand me your bayonet. Damn these rich people, they lock up everything they've got!" She dug the steel point through the crack of a drawer and, pressing on the hilt, broke the lock, opened the splinted cover of a writing desk. Anastasio, Pancracio and War Paint plunged their hands into a mass of post cards, photographs, pictures and papers, scattering them all over the rug. Finding nothing he wanted, Pancracio gave vent to his anger by kicking a framed photograph into the air with the toe of his shoe. It smashed on the candelabra in the center of the room. They pulled their empty hands out of the heap of paper, cursing. But War Paint was of sterner stuff; tirelessly she continued to unlock drawer after drawer without failing to investigate a single spot. In their absorption, they did not notice a small gray velvet-covered box which rolled silently across the floor, coming to a stop at Luis Cervantes' feet. Demetrio, lying on the rug, seemed to be asleep; Cervantes, who had watched everything with profound indifference, pulled the box closer to him with his foot, and stooping to scratch his ankle, swiftly picked it up. Something gleamed up at him, dazzling. It was two pure-water diamonds mounted in filigreed platinum. Hastily he thrust them inside his coat pocket. When Demetrio awoke, Cervantes said: "General, look at the mess these boys have made here. Don't you think it would be advisable to forbid this sort of thing?" "No. It's about their only pleasure after putting their bellies up as targets for the enemy's bullets." "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it somewhere else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige, and worse, our cause!" Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-mindedly. Then: "Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!" His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in perfect harmony, displayed their booty. War Paint and her companions were ransacking the rest of the house. Quail entered the room with a twelve-year-old girl upon whose forehead and arms were already marked copper-colored spots. They stopped short, speechless with surprise as they saw the books lying in piles on the floor, chairs and tables, the large mirrors thrown to the ground, smashed, the huge albums and the photographs torn into shreds, the furniture, objets d'art and bric-a-brac broken. Quail held his breath, his avid eyes scouring the room for booty. Outside, in one corner of the patio, lost in dense clouds of suffocating smoke, Manteca was boiling corn on the cob, feeding his fire with books and paper that made the flames leap wildly through the air. "Hey!" Quail shouted. "Look what I found. A fine sweat-cover for my mare." With a swift pull he wrenched down a hanging, which fell over a handsomely carved upright chair. "Look, look at all these naked women!" Quail's little companion cried, enchanted at a de luxe edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. "I like this; I think I'll take it along." She began to tear out the illustrations which pleased her most. Demetrio crossed the room and sat down beside Luis Cervantes. He ordered some beer, handed one bottle up to his secretary, downed his own bottle at one gulp. Then, drowsily, he half closed his eyes, and soon fell sound asleep. "Hey!" a man called to Pancracio from the threshold. "When can I see your general?" "You can't see him. He's got a hangover this morning. What the hell do you want?" "I want to buy some of those books you're burning." "I'll sell them to you myself." "How much do you want for them?" Pancracio frowned in bewilderment. "Give me a nickel for those with pictures, see. I'll give you the rest for nothing if you buy all those with pictures." The man returned with a large basket to carry away the books.... "Come on, Demetrio, come on, you pig, get up! Look who's here! It's Blondie. You don't know what a fine man he is!" "I like you very much, General Macias, and I like the way you do things. So if it's all right, I'd like very much to serve under you!" "What's your rank?" Demetrio asked him. "I'm a captain, General." "All right, you can serve with me now. I'll make you major. How's that?" Blondie was a round little fellow, with waxed mustache. When he laughed, his blue eyes disappeared mischievously between his forehead and his fat cheeks. He had been a waiter at "El Monico," in Chihuahua; now he proudly wore three small brass bars, the insignia of his rank in the Northern Division. Blondie showered eulogy after eulogy on Demetrio and his men; this proved sufficient reason for bringing out a fresh case of beer, which was finished in short order. Suddenly War Paint reappeared in the middle of the room, wearing a beautiful silk dress covered with exquisite lace. "You forgot the stockings," Blondie shouted, shaking with laughter. Quail's girl also burst out laughing. But War Paint did not care. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, sat down on the floor, kicked off her white satin slippers, and wiggled her toes happily, giving their muscles a freedom welcome after their tight confinement in the slippers. She said: "Hey, you, Pancracio, go and get me my blue stockings ... they're with the rest of my plunder." Soldiers and their friends, companions and veterans of other campaigns, began to enter in groups of twos and threes. Demetrio, growing excited, began to narrate in detail his most notable feats of arms. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked in surprise as he heard string and brass instruments tuning up in the patio. "General Demetrio Macias," Luis Cervantes said solemnly, "it's a banquet all of your old friends and followers are giving in your honor to celebrate your victory at Zacatecas and your well-merited promotion to the rank of general!" III "General Macias, I want you to meet my future wife," Luis Cervantes said with great emphasis as he led a beautiful girl into the dining room. They all turned to look at her. Her large blue eyes grew wide in wonder. She was barely fourteen. Her skin was like a rose, soft, pink, fresh; her hair was very fair; the expression in her eyes was partly impish curiosity, partly a vague childish fear. Perceiving that Demetrio eyed her like a beast of prey, Luis Cervantes congratulated himself. They made room for her between Luis Cervantes and Blondie, opposite Demetrio. Bottles of tequila, dishes of cut glass, bowls, porcelains and vases lay scattered over the table indiscriminately. Meco, carrying a box of beer upon his shoulders, came in cursing and sweating. "You don't know this fellow Blondie yet," said War Paint, noticing the persistent glances he was casting at Luis Cervantes' bride. "He's a smart fellow, I can tell you, and he never misses a trick." She gazed at him lecherously, adding: "That's why I don't like to see him close, even on a photograph!" The orchestra struck up a raucous march as though they were playing at a bullfight. The soldiers roared with joy. "What fine tripe, General; I swear I haven't tasted the like of it in all my life," Blondie said, as he began to reminisce about "El Monico" at Chihuahua. "You really like it, Blondie?" responded Demetrio. "Go ahead, call for more, eat your bellyful." "It's just the way I like it," Anastasio chimed in. "Yes, I like good food! But nothing really tastes good to you unless you belch!" The noise of mouths being filled, of ravenous feeding followed. All drank copiously. At the end of the dinner, Luis Cervantes rose, holding a champagne glass in one hand, and said: "General..." "Ho!" War Paint interrupted. "This speech-making business isn't for me; I'm all against it. I'll go out to the corral since there's no more eating here." Presenting Demetrio with a black velvet-covered box containing a small brass eagle, Luis Cervantes made a toast which no one understood but everyone applauded enthusiastically. Demetrio took the insignia in his hands; and with flushed face, and eyes shining, declared with great candor: "What in hell am I going to do with this buzzard!" "Compadre," Anastasio Montanez said in a tremulous voice. "I ain't got much to tell you...." Whole minutes elapsed between his words; the cursed words would not come to Anastasio. His face, coated with filth, unwashed for days, turned crimson, shining with perspiration. Finally he decided to finish his toast at all costs. "Well, I ain't got much to tell you, except that we are pals...." Then, since everyone had applauded at the end of Luis Cervantes' speech, Anastasio having finished, made a sign, and the company clapped their hands in great gravity. But everything turned out for the best, since his awkwardness inspired others. Manteca and Quail stood up and made their toasts, too. When Meco's turn came, War Paint rushed in shouting jubilantly, attempting to drag a splendid black horse into the dining room. "My booty! My booty!" she cried, patting the superb animal on the neck. It resisted every effort she made until a strong jerk of the rope and a sudden lash brought it in prancing smartly. The soldiers, half drunk, stared at the beast with ill-disguised envy. "I don't know what the hell this she-devil's got, but she always beats everybody to it," cried Blondie. "She's been the same ever since she joined us at Tierra Blanca!" "Hey, Pancracio, bring me some alfalfa for my horse," War Paint commanded crisply, throwing the horse's rope to one of the soldiers. Once more they filled their glasses. Many a head hung low with fatigue or drunkenness. Most of the company, however, shouted with glee, including Luis Cervantes' girl. She had spilled all her wine on a handkerchief and looked all about her with blue wondering eyes. "Boys," Blondie suddenly screamed, his shrill, guttural voice dominating the mall, "I'm tired of living; I feel like killing myself right now. I'm sick and tired of War Paint and this other little angel from heaven won't even look at me!" Luis Cervantes saw that the last remark was addressed to his bride; with great surprise he realized that it was not Demetrio's foot he had noticed close to the girl's, but Blondie's. He was boiling with indignation. "Keep your eye on me, boys," Blondie went on, gun in hand. "I'm going to shoot myself right in the forehead!" He aimed at the large mirror on the opposite wall which gave back his whole body in reflection. He took careful aim.... "Don't move, War Paint." The bullet whizzed by, grazing War Paint's hair. The mirror broke into large jagged fragments. She did not even so much as blink. IV Late in the afternoon Luis Cervantes rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had been sleeping on the hard pavement, close to the trunk of a fruit tree. Anastasio, Pancracio and Quail slept nearby, breathing heavily. His lips were swollen, his nose dry and cold. There were bloodstains on his hands and shirt. At once he recalled what had taken place. Soon he rose to his feet and made for one of the bedrooms. He pushed at the door several times without being able to force it open. For a few minutes he stood there, hesitating. No--he had not dreamed it. Everything had really occurred just as he recalled it. He had left the table with his bride and taken her to the bedroom, but just as he was closing the door, Demetrio staggered after them and made one leap toward them. Then War Paint dashed in after Demetrio and began to struggle with him. Demetrio, his eyes white-hot, his lips covered with long blond hairs, looked for the bride, in despair. But War Paint pushed him back vigorously. "What the hell is the matter with you? What the hell are you trying to do?" he demanded, furious. War Paint put her leg between his, twisted it suddenly, and Demetrio fell to the ground outside of the bedroom. He rose, raging. "Help! Help! He's going to kill me!" she cried, seizing Demetrio's wrist and turning the gun aside. The bullet hit the floor. War Paint continued to shriek. Anastasio disarmed Demetrio from behind. Demetrio, standing like a furious bull in the middle of the arena, cast fierce glances at all the bystanders, Luis Cervantes, Anastasio, Manteca, and the others. "Goddamn you! You've taken my gun away! Christ! As if I needed any gun to beat the hell out of you." Flinging out his arms, beating and pummeling, he felled everyone within reach. Down they rolled like tenpins. Then, after that, Luis Cervantes could remember nothing more. Perhaps his bride, terrified by all these brutes, had wisely vanished and hidden herself. "Perhaps this bedroom communicates with the living room and I can go in through there," he thought, standing at the threshold. At the sound of his footsteps, War Paint woke up. She lay on the rug close to Demetrio at the foot of a couch filled with alfalfa and corn where the black horse had fed. "What are you looking for? Oh, hell, I know what you want! Shame on you! Why, I had to lock up your sweetheart because I couldn't struggle any more against this damned Demetrio. Take the key, it's lying on that table, there!" Luis Cervantes searched in vain all over the house. "Come on, tell me all about your girl." Nervously, Luis Cervantes continued to look for the key. "Come on, don't be in such a hurry, I'll give it to you. Come along, tell me; I like to hear about these things, you know. That girl is your kind, she's not a country person like us." "I've nothing to say. She's my girl and we're going to get married, that's all." "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're going to marry her, eh? Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, eh? Why, you fool, any place you just manage to get to for the first time in your life, I've left a hundred miles behind me, see. I've cut my wisdom teeth. It was Meco and Manteca who took the girl from her home: I knew that all the time. You just gave them something so as to have her yourself, gave them a pair of cuff links ... or a miraculous picture of some Virgin.... Am I right? Sure, I am! There aren't so many people in the world who know what's what, but I reckon you'll meet up with a few before you die!" War Paint got up to give him the key but she could not find it either. She was much surprised. Quickly, she ran to the bedroom door and peered through the keyhole, standing motionless until her eye grew accustomed to the darkness within. Without drawing away, she said: "You damned Blondie. Son of a bitch! Come here a minute, look!" She went away laughing. "Didn't I tell them all I'd never seen a smarter fellow in all my life!" The following morning, War Paint watched for the moment when Blondie left the bedroom to feed his horses.... "Come on, Angel Face. Run home quick!" The blue-eyed girl, with a face like a Madonna, stood naked save for her chemise and stockings. War Paint covered her with Manteca's lousy blanket, took her by the hand and led her to the street. "God, I'm happy," War Paint cried. "I'm crazy ... about Blondie ... now." V Like neighing colts, playful when the rainy season begins, Demetrio's men galloped through the sierra. "To Moyahua, boys. Let's go to Demetrio Macias' country!" "To the country of Monico the cacique!" The landscape grew clearer; the sun margined the diaphanous sky with a fringe of crimson. Like the bony shoulders of immense sleeping monsters, the chains of mountains rose in the distance. Crags there were like heads of colossal native idols; others like giants' faces, their grimaces awe-inspiring or grotesque, calling forth a smile or a shudder at a presentment of mystery. Demetrio Macias rode at the head of his men; behind him the members of his staff: Colonel Anastasio Montanez, Lieutenant-Colonel Pancracio, Majors Luis Cervantes and Blondie. Still further behind came War Paint with Venancio, who paid her many compliments and recited the despairing verses of Antonio Plaza. As the sun's rays began to slip from the housetops, they made their entrance into Moyahua, four abreast, to the sound of the bugle. The roosters' chorus was deafening, dogs barked their alarm, but not a living soul stirred on the streets. War Paint spurred her black horse and with one jump was abreast with Demetrio. They rode forward, elbow to elbow. She wore a silk dress and heavy gold earrings. Proudly her pale blue gown deepened her olive skin and the coppery spots on her face and arms. Riding astride, she had pulled her skirts up to her knees; her stockings showed, filthy and full of runs. She wore a gun at her side, a cartridge belt hung over the pommel of her saddle. Demetrio was also dressed in his best clothes. His broad-brimmed hat was richly embroidered; his leather trousers were tight-fitting and adorned with silver buttons; his coat was embroidered with gold thread. There was a sound of doors being beaten down and forced open. The soldiers had already scattered through the town, to gather together ammunition and saddles from everywhere. "We're going to bid Monico good morning," Demetrio said gravely, dismounting and tossing his bridle to one of his men. "We're going to have breakfast with Don Monico, who's a particular friend of mine ...." The general's staff smiled ... a sinister, malign smile.... Making their spurs ring against the pavement, they walked toward a large pretentious house, obviously that of a cacique. "It's closed airtight," Anastasio Montanez said, pushing the door with all his might. "That's all right. I'll open it," Pancracio answered, lowering his rifle and pointing it at the lock. "No, no," Demetrio said, "knock first." Three blows with the butt of the rifle. Three more. No answer. Pancracio disobeys orders. He fires, smashing the lock. The door opens. Behind, a confusion of skirts and children's bare legs rushing to and fro, pell-mell. "I want wine. Hey, there: wine!" Demetrio cries in an imperious voice, pounding heavily on a table. "Sit down, boys." A lady peeps out, another, a third; from among black skirts, the heads of frightened children. One of the women, trembling, walks toward a cupboard and, taking out some glasses and a bottle, serves wine. "What arms have you?" Demetrio demands harshly. "Arms, arms...?" the lady answers, a taste of ashes on her tongue. "What arms do you expect us to have! We are respectable, lonely old ladies!" "Lonely, eh! Where's Senor Monico?" "Oh, he's not here, gentlemen, I assure you! We merely rent the house from him, you see. We only know him by name!" Demetrio orders his men to search the house. "No, please don't. We'll bring you whatever we have ourselves, but please for God's sake, don't do anything cruel. We're spinsters, lone women ... perfectly respectable...." "Spinsters, hell! What about these kids here?" Pancracio interrupts brutally. "Did they spring from the earth?" The women disappear hurriedly, to return with an old shotgun, covered with dust and cobwebs, and a pistol with rusty broken springs. Demetrio smiles. "All right, then, let's see the money." "Money? Money? But what money do you think a couple of spinsters have? Spinsters alone in the world....?" They glance up in supplication at the nearest soldier; but they are seized with horror. For they have just seen the Roman soldier who crucified Our Lord in the Via Crucis of the parish! They have seen Pancracio! Demetrio repeats his order to search. Once again the women disappear to return this time with a moth-eaten wallet containing a few Huerta bills. Demetrio smiles and without further delay calls to his men to come in. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, | cause | How many times the word 'cause' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | dropping | How many times the word 'dropping' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | they | How many times the word 'they' appears in the text? | 2 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | drive | How many times the word 'drive' appears in the text? | 3 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | flatly | How many times the word 'flatly' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | absorbing | How many times the word 'absorbing' appears in the text? | 0 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | calmly | How many times the word 'calmly' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | towered | How many times the word 'towered' appears in the text? | 0 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | shape | How many times the word 'shape' appears in the text? | 2 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | their | How many times the word 'their' appears in the text? | 3 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | surge | How many times the word 'surge' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | sorts | How many times the word 'sorts' appears in the text? | 0 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | already | How many times the word 'already' appears in the text? | 3 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | half | How many times the word 'half' appears in the text? | 3 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | two | How many times the word 'two' appears in the text? | 3 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | go | How many times the word 'go' appears in the text? | 2 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | middle | How many times the word 'middle' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | commence | How many times the word 'commence' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | bulletin | How many times the word 'bulletin' appears in the text? | 1 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | baker | How many times the word 'baker' appears in the text? | 0 |
He got caught in the crossfire. (a sad beat) Let's move on... Notice this. Always use the eyes to keep the connection. It almost like hypnosis. That's the most important thing. Create a connection. You're always on their side... McCall watches him for a beat, then turns his attention back on the screen. EXT. GOLDEN GATE RACETRACK - DAY Beautiful day. Roper and McCall leaning against the rail at the walking ring. The horses are being paraded and saddled. Roper scrutinizes them with an expert eye. McCall seems totally disinterested. ROPER You know why I like the track? MCCALL You're a compulsive gambler? Roper ignores that. ROPER Because there are a multitude of possibility's. Everything is there to see if you know what to look for. You have to read the conditions, just like in a hostage situation. Roper points across the ring to a particular horse. ROPER See the four horse. Dropping in class. No works. Front wraps. Looks like he's broken down. But notice the woman in the sun hat. She's the owner. She wouldn't have come if her horse was broken down. He's live. We use him. McCall listens indifferently. ROPER See the favorite? Tail up. Washy. He doesn't want to run today. Cross him off... Now the Six looks good. On his toes. Coat shiny. This trainer/jockey combo does well. We can't leave him out. (turns to McCall) What do you think? MCCALL I have two words for you... Seek help. ROPER I have three words for you... Ex-ac- ta. INT. BETTING WINDOWS - DAY Roper is buying tickets. McCall is with him, watching the other bettors, the odds board, all the monitors... Strange place. Roper finishes and turns away from the window. Hands McCall a ticket. ROPER I bought you a four-six exacta box. You owe me twenty bucks. MCCALL (puzzled) I do. EXT. SEATING AREA - DAY Roper and McCall pass by a gambler. GAMBLER Hey, Roper. ROPER How you doin', Marv? They sit down in a box right up front. ROPER We need the 4 and 6 to finish to first and second. MCCALL (no enthusiasm) Fine. Roper uses his binoculars to watch the horses warm up on the backstretch. MCCALL I'm told that newspaper photographer is your former girlfriend. Roper looks over at him. What's this about? ROPER Ronnie... Yeah, so. MCCALL Now she's going out with Greg Barnett? ROPER So what do you want?... An autograph. MCCALL I don't know why she'd pick him over you. Roper throws McCall a skeptical look. MCCALL (straight-faced) I'm just practicing my lying. ROPER Still needs work. MCCALL (downcast) You're right. I'll never be as good a liar as you. TRACK ANNOUNCER (O.S.) And they're racing! ON THE TRACK The horses spring from the gate. (The track announcer's call plays through race) IN THE STANDS Roper watches intently through the binoculars. McCall sits impassively. ROPER Okay, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. McCall looks across the track. MCCALL The 6 horse is last. ROPER That's okay. That's his style. MCCALL To run last? ROPER To run late! Roper follows the horses into the turn. ROPER The favorite's fading. I told you he wasn't going to run today... The four horse has got the lead! McCall sits like a wax figure. MCCALL (cynically) The 6 horse is still last. ROPER He'll be running at the quarter pole. ON THE TRACK The horses head into the stretch. The FOUR is on the lead and the SIX is starting to unleash a big run. Passing horses with every stride. ROPER (V.O.) There he goes. IN THE STANDS McCall sits forward slightly. MCCALL They need to run first and second? ROPER Yeah, first and second. Roper gets to his feet. ON THE TRACK The horses thunder down the stretch. The FOUR horse is in front and the SIX is coming on from behind. IN THE STANDS Roper is on his feet screaming. ROPER Come on, Russell! Come on, Russell. McCall jumps to this feet and joins him. MCCALL COME ON RUSSELL!... (to Roper) Who the fuck's Russell?! ROPER The jockey! MCCALL COME ON, RUSSELL! Roper and McCall cheer together. ON THE TRACK The FOUR horse crosses the finish line in front. The SIX horse is flying... Needs to beat one horse to be second... He's running out of room... With one last surge he hits the wire and... It's too close to call. IN THE STANDS McCall, really excited, turns to Roper. MCCALL We won! ROPER (disheartened) We lost. MCCALL (confidently) We won. ROPER How much you wanna bet? MCCALL You want to bet on whether you won your bet? This is getting sick. ANGLE ON TOTE BOARD As the photo finish light goes out and the numbers come on... 4-6-8. They won. IN THE STANDS ROPER Yes! High fives. ROPER That's eight hundred bucks. INT. BET/CASH WINDOW - DAY Roper and McCall collect their money. Four hundred a piece, not bad. McCall pockets his money. MCCALL How long you been coming here? ROPER About six years. My partner took me. MCCALL Is it always like this? ROPER Occasionally you lose. Suddenly Roper's BEEPER goes off. He checks it, takes out a cellular phone and dials. ROPER (into the phone) Roper here. (he listens) I'm on my way. He hangs up and turns to McCall. ROPER We gotta go. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - UNION SQUARE - DAY Marble facade. Tastefully reinforced windows and door. Choppers circle overhead. Both ends of the street are sealed off. Barricades are up. Spectators and news crews crowd behind those. Numerous police circulate. This is a major operation in full swing. INT. TRAVEL AGENCY - COMMAND CENTER - DAY It's across the street from the jewelry store. Second story. The walls are plastered with travel posters. A poster of Tahiti is the most prominent. Members of police and SWAT are standing over a blueprint of the jewelry store spread out on a table. Right behind them is a TV monitoring the front of the store. Solis is at another desk, on the phone. He's talking to the suspect. SOLIS We're working on that, Joe. These things aren't quite that simple. EXT. STREET - DAY Roper and McCall push through the barricades and come walking down the cordoned-off street. McCall takes a look at the jewelry store. Well fortified, foreboding. MCCALL This does not look good. Roper looks over there, gives no reaction. They reach Solis' convertible Cadillac. It's parked out front of the travel agency building. ROPER See this. Solis has me driving the shit-mobile, and he picked this up straight out of impound for fourteen grand. Probably worth thirty. MCCALL Police corruption. It's everywhere. INT. COMMAND POST - DAY Roper and McCall enter. McCall joins the men who are studying the blueprint. Roper stands by Solis and listens, takes note of the poster of Tahiti. Looks inviting. SOLIS This will take time to setup. I'll have to get authorizations. (he listens) Okay, you relax, and I'll -- Solis pulls the phone away from his ear. Joe has obviously hung up. ROPER What do we got? SOLIS 32 minutes ago the silent alarm went off, then the fire alarm. A unit was a block away, and the suspect got trapped inside. ROPER Any verification on numbers. SOLIS We've only seen and talked to one suspect. He calls himself "Joe". There's two jewelers, two salespeople, the manager, a security guard, and an elderly woman. This particular store is where they do a lot of jewelry making and repair. They have anywhere from 8 to 10 million in raw stones on any given day, so they sure as shit didn't just wander in. They knew what they were coming for. ROPER What have you promised them? SOLIS Just that I'd talk to my superiors. McCall returns from checking out the blueprints. ROPER Any good points of entry? McCall shakes his head. MCCALL The place is designed to be a vault. Roper picks up the cellular phone. It dials automatically. ROPER (into the phone) My name's Roper. How are you people doing in there? (he listens) Solis is off the job now, Joe. I'm the guy authorized to give you whatever you want. (listens) That's right, but first I need to come down there to talk to you. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY We don't see anything but the suspect on the other end of the phone. He's wearing a ski mask and gloves. Totally unrecognizable to the audience. We will find out soon that he is, in fact, Korda. He appears very cool and collected. KORDA You don't have to come here. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY ROPER Yes, I do. That way there's no misunderstandings. I need to make sure no one's hurt, then we can take care of business. A long pause... Then a bit sinister. KORDA (V.O.) Alright, Roper. You want to come... come. ROPER Good. I won't be armed. We gotta operate on trust here. We're going to wrap this up and have you guys out of here as soon as possible. Roper clicks off the phone. He already doesn't like the sound of this guy. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE JEWELRY STORE - DAY Roper, bulletproof vest, hands in the air, walks across the eerily deserted street straight toward the jewelry store. It's quiet now. The choppers have been pulled back. Roper reaches the sidewalk right in front of the store. Korda cracks the door open. KORDA (warningly) Stay there. Roper stops in his tracks. ROPER I'm going to put my hands down, okay. Roper slowly lowers his hands. INT. COMMAND CENTER Everybody watching through the window. EXT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY Korda takes a half step out the doorway. The gloved hand that is visible is not holding a weapon. The other half of his body is hidden inside the doorway. He wears jeans, a black shirt, and black Nike tennis shoes. He stares fiercely from behind the ski mask. There's no sign of fear in him. KORDA Are you in charge, Roper? ROPER Yep. KORDA I want a car. Like a four wheel drive. I want it in perfect condition. I want a uniformed cop to drive it up right here. I want him to leave the engine running and walk to the end of the street. Then we'll come out. I don't want any remote control devices in it. I know all the tricks. If it's not in perfect condition, and I mean if its even low on wiper fluid, I'm going to kill somebody and we're gonna start again. Korda lets that sink in. KORDA I want a plane waiting at the airport. I'll tell them where I want to go when I get there. ROPER Is that all? KORDA For now that's all. ROPER You'll get it. But, Joe, I want you to do something for me. Let me take a look around inside. Make sure everybody's okay. KORDA No. You just do shit for me right now. Korda's eyes glare from behind the ski mask. He's an ominous figure. ROPER Joe, I'm doing a lot for you. I think you could give me something to cement the deal... One hostage. KORDA I'll give you something. Korda pulls a wadded-up handkerchief out of his pocket and tosses it to Roper. Roper unwraps the handkerchief. DETAIL SHOT It's a human ear. KORDA In fifteen minutes it'll be a bigger piece. I assume there are no "misunderstanding". Roper is as serious as we've ever seen him. ROPER I understand you completely. Korda disappears back behind the door. EXT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper trudges back in. Things are more active now. Logistical officers are making flow charts. Photos of the hostages are being posted on a bulletin board. Roper approaches Solis, McCall and the SWAT CAPTAIN who are anxiously waiting for his report. ROPER (flatly) We're going to have to take this guy out. That draws a long silence. That's something Roper rarely says. SOLIS Can't we wear him down? Roper hands Solis the handkerchief with the ear in it. Solis eyes it with dismay. ROPER I believe there's at least one fatality in there already. The fire alarm was probably set off by gunfire. I believe he's working alone, both from his conversation and the fact that he wouldn't come out beyond the doorway. He was holding a gun on the hostages while he was talking to me. His demeanor is calm and controlled, that's what really scares me. The other bad news is that he also indicated a familiarity with our techniques. (a beat) So, do you want to go in or wait for him to come out? McCall calmly offers his opinion. MCCALL Let him come out. Too many unknowns in there. Solis nods. That'll be the plan. MCCALL When we drive up the car, make sure it's at an angle about three feet from the curb. (to SWAT Captain) Put our best man "highground", Twenty degree down angle. The SWAT Captain motions and turns to one of his UNDERLINGS. SWAT CAPTAIN Have Anderson prep it and notify us when he's on line. The underling hurries off to take care of it. Solis looks at Roper dejectedly. SOLIS I feel this thing going sideways on us. Roper tries to buck him up. ROPER There is some good news. He's wearing a ski mask, so he's protecting his identity and hasn't determined to kill all the hostages... (big pause) Yet. INT. JEWELRY STORE - DAY The jewel thief pulls off his ski mask to reveal he is Korda. His face is sweaty. Hair matted. ANGLE WIDENS to show five very scared hostages: A JEWELER, middle-aged, balding. The male MANAGER, good-looking, thirties, three piece suit. TWO SALESGIRLS, nicely dressed, late twenties. A FEMALE CUSTOMER, gray-haired Hillsborough matron. They are all seated against the wall. There are two fatalities lying on the floor. The guard and one of the jewelers. Korda points his gun at the manager and the other jeweler and motions to the dead bodies. KORDA Drag them behind the counter. The two men reluctantly get to their feet and commence the grim task. The two salesgirls watch Korda fearfully. The older female customer seems to be in a lesser state of reality. Her eyes are a bit far away. Korda moves over to the remaining display cases that haven't been looted. With the barrel of his gun, He SMASHES the glass, reaches in and picks out the jewelry. He dumps it in an open satchel already half-filled with packets of raw gemstones and gold chains. Suddenly, the older woman customer gets to her feet. She seems fairly out-of-it. Maybe in shock. She starts walking toward the front door frowning with dissatisfaction. WOMAN CUSTOMER I'm not staying here another minute. SALESGIRL #1 (panicky) No, Mrs. Dotson. Korda rushes around the display case. KORDA Come here, hag. He grabs a handful of the woman's coiffed gray hair and drags her away from the door. She shrieks. The manager takes a step toward Korda. MANAGER Leave her alone! Korda pistol whips her across the forehead and drops her unconscious to the floor then turns the gun on the manager. KORDA You're a brave one, aren't you? The manager glares at him. He's about Korda's size. He thinks about making a run at him. SALESGIRL #2 (pleading) Sit down, Doug. A long beat... The manager sits back down on the floor with the other hostages. Salesgirl 1 is giving aid to the old woman. Korda looks down at her. KORDA If she's not conscious when it's time to leave, I'll have to kill her. Korda goes back to the display cases to collect the rest of the gems. EXT. STREET - DAY Cops clear spectators out of the way as a green FORD EXPLORER RUMBLES through the barricade and heads down the deserted street. INT. COMMAND CENTER - DAY Roper and McCall at the window, attention fixed on the store. The Explorer crawls to a stop in front of the jewelry store. Parks at a slight angle. The uniformed police officer gets out, leaving the engine running, and walks off back to the barricade. ROPER Okay. Time to give this fucker a call. Roper picks up the phone, waits. Everybody tensely watching the store. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BUILDING - SAME A sniper team watching the store from a third floor window. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME Roper holding the phone. It's still ringing. EXT. ROOFTOP - DIFFERENT BUILDING - SAME Another sharpshooting team. Poised. Waiting. EXT. ANOTHER ROOFTOP - SAME And still another sharpshooter team. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The phone is still ringing. ROPER This fucker's not answering. Just then, the front door of the jewelry store swings open. A spray of white vapor shoots out the doorway. Korda is discharging a fire extinguisher. MCCALL There's your answer. He's smart. ROPER He's cutting down the visibility. MCCALL And doing a very good job of it. A thick cloud of white hangs over the sidewalk obscuring the front of the jewelry store. Roper puts down the phone. MCCALL Come on. Give us one clean shot. SWAT CAPTAIN (into his radio) All positions, you have the green light. MCCALL They're out. Roper grabs a pair of binoculars. HIS POV Through the haze, we catch glimpses of the hostages circled around the figure in the ski mask. They slowly shuffle toward the Explorer. McCall watches intently. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME A sniper watches through his scope. Finger poised on the trigger. ANGLE THROUGH THE SCOPE Low visibility through the haze. The figure in the ski mask wavers in and out of the crosshairs, shielded momentarily by the jeweler, then he flashes back into the crosshairs. The sniper tries to lock him in. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ROPER'S POV - BINOCULARS - SAME The figure in the ski mask leans slightly and Roper catches a glimpse of the hostage right behind him. Roper recognizes him instantly. ROPER It's Korda. McCall sees him now, too. MCCALL They switched clothes. Roper drops the binoculars and grabs his police radio. ROPER (urgently) Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Too late. A SHOT rings out. The figure in the ski mask goes down, hit by the bullet. ROPER Shit! Where'd that shot come from? Hold your fire! More SHOTS ring out. DOWN ON THE STREET The white vapor cloud swirls. The hostages, spattered with blood, scream and scatter. The figure in the ski mask lies dead on the sidewalk. Korda, dressed in the manager's three piece suit, holding the satchel of jewels in one hand and his gun in the other FIRES back at the snipers. He grabs salesgirl 1 and drags her into the Explorer. INT. COMMAND CENTER Roper sees Korda move toward the car with one of the hostages. MCCALL He's got the girl. ROPER Damnit! As Roper turns into the room he notices a set of keys on Solis' desk. ROPER (grabbing the keys; to Solis) Are these yours? SOLIS Yeah, they are but... ROPER (to McCall) Come on! As Roper and McCall move toward the door... SOLIS Roper, what are you going to do? Don't take my... And Roper and McCall are gone. SOLIS ...car. DOWN ON THE STREET Police come rushing onto the street. Guns drawn. The Explorer ROARS off down the block. Roper and McCall burst out of the command center building, leap into Solis' Cadillac and tear off after the van. McCall is behind the wheel. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. POLICE BARRICADES - DAY The Explorer comes barreling toward it. Spectators scatter. Two squad cars SCREECH up behind the barricades, trying to block Korda's escape. The Explorer PLOWS through the metal barricades. BASHES the squad cars out of the way. And screams off around the corner. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. STREET - DAY The Explorer careens up an alley and bursts into the congested traffic of a side street. HONK-SCREECH! A Toyota swerves to miss it and broadsides a parked car. The Explorer fishtails off down the street. INT. VAN - DAY The salesgirl is terrified. Korda checks the rear view mirror. No one on his tail... At first. Then the Cadillac comes speeding up behind... INT. CADILLAC - DAY Roper and McCall have the Van in sight, about a block ahead. Roper picks up the radio. MCCALL Suspect heading west on Sutter now passing Jones. Can we get an intercept? A voice comes back. VOICE (V.O.) R-32-David. We are proceeding south on Hyde. Will intercept. INT. VAN - DAY Korda has one eye on the road and the other on the rear view mirror. The Cadillac is making up ground. UP AHEAD a squad car SCREECHES into the intersection and smokes to a stop. Korda jerks the wheel, pulls a SCREAMING right turn and heads up the hill. EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac is only about a hundred feet behind the van... Brakes SQUEALING, it swerves around the corner in pursuit. THE VAN hits the top of the hill and goes airborne... SLAMS back down to the pavement. INT. VAN - DAY Korda floors it, and we get a frightening view out the windshield as they head straight downhill. The salesgirl is beyond petrified. THE CADILLAC reaches the top of the hill. Going fast. INT. CADILLAC As it rocks forward violently. Front bumper slamming against the pavement. McCall sees the van ahead. Hammers the accelerator. No fear. VAN Korda sees traffic ahead... Intersection jammed. He pulls a hard left. THE VAN cuts straight across the corner... up on the sidewalk... shears a mailbox... a row of newspaper machines fly through the air... The van speeds off down a one-way street... THE CADILLAC arrives at the intersection a few seconds later... Intersection still jammed... People now standing on the corner gawking at the damage. The Caddy SCREECHES to a stop. McCall HONKS... The people scatter... The Cadillac drives through the corner. THE VAN Wrong way down a one-way street. Cars coming right at us in every angle. Frantic HONKING. Salesgirl SHRIEKS. Tires SMOKING... No way to avoid collision... Except Korda pulls a left an instant before impact... The van speeds back up the hill. THE CADILIAC Down the same one way street... Comes up on the head-on traffic, now stopped, paralyzed with fear from the near collision with Korda... EXT. STREET - DAY The Cadillac roars around the corner and heads up the hill. INT. VAN Korda, checking the rear view mirror. The Caddy is a short distance behind. Attention still focused behind, Korda enters an intersection, running a red light... CROSS-TRAFFIC... Korda stiffens... Pulls on the wheel THE STREET The van swerves... But not quick enough... GRINDING metal... SHATTERING glass... The van rolls over another car... BRIEF CUT - LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD Korda and the salesgirl tossed about as the van does a dizzying roll... THE VAN ...and CRASHES back down to the street upside down. After a beat, Korda crawls from the wreckage carrying the satchel of jewels. The salesgirl does not emerge. He spots a cable car reaching the top of the hill and starting its long descend. He heads toward it... INT. CABLE CAR As Korda comes toward them from the wreckage, some of the passengers view him uneasily. THE CADILLAC hits the top of the hill just in time for Rope and McCall to see Korda leap onto the moving cable car. CABLE CAR other passengers give Korda room. They can sense that he is not here merely for the ride. Korda looks out the back... Roper and McCall haven't lost track of him. The Cadillac is making up ground on the cable car. Korda moves to the back exit, pulls his gun and FIRES off a couple of shots at the Caddy. INT. CADILLAC A bullet fractures the windshield. McCall swerves. BACK ON THE CABLE CAR That makes up the minds of many of the passenger. They leap off the cable car. Korda takes aim on the Caddy again and FIRES! The brakeman charges down the aisle while Korda has his attention focused out the back and tries to shove him off the cable car... Almost works... but Korda is able to hang on by one hand... He swings around toward the Brakeman who turns involuntarily as he sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him... BANG! Korda shoots him in the back. The brakeman staggers down the aisle and slumps across the brake lever, releasing it more. EXT. UNDER CABLE CAR The brakes are stressed. EXT. STREET Now driverless, the cable car picks up speed... Broadsides a car... Pushing it into parked cars... THE CABLE CAR Korda and the remaining passengers are rocked around. THE CABLE CAR THUNDERS towards us... Filling the FRAME... A SIDE ANGLE Shows the cable car leaving the wreckage in its wake. CADILLAC It passes the smashed car. McCall looks at the speedometer as he paces the cable car. It's going at 45 mph. MCCALL What the fuck is going on. ROPER I don't know, but I've got to get on there. MCCALL You're crazy. ROPER Pull up alongside. EXT. INTERSECTION The cable car barrels through... Plows into two cross-traffic cars... Knocks them aside... Keeps picking up speed. THE CADILLAC Weaves through the wreckage... Makes up ground on the cable car, trying to pull alongside. THE CABLE CAR For the moment, Korda is not shooting at the Caddy. His attention is now focused downhill as... KORDA'S POV The cable car nails another vehicle sending it spinning off to the side. THE CADDY dodges the spinning car... Jumps up onto the sidewalk... Mows down parking meters... Jumps back onto the street. THE CABLE CAR Korda leans out the door, takes aim at the Caddy... Another jammed intersection up ahead... INT. CAR OF MAN TRAPPED IN INTERSECTION He sees the cable car coming in his rear view mirror. He bails out... THE CABLE CAR SLAMS into the back of the car. Major impact. THE CABLE CAR Korda and the passengers are thrown to the floor. THE REAR-ENDED CAR Tumbles down the hill... Hits a car coming uphill and rolls into a parked car. THE CADILLAC Speeds up alongside the cable car. Roper climbs over the windshield, onto the hood and leaps onto the cable car. INT. CABLE CAR Korda sees him coming. FIRES. Roper dives out the other side of the cable car. CABLE CAR Roper hanging off the side. He gets his gun out of his holster... Up ahead, a car pulls away from the curb... Roper swings around to get back into the relative safety of the cable car. As he does his gun is raked out of his hand by the car which avoids a collision by a millimeter. CABLE CAR Korda aims as Roper re-enters... CABLE CAR As it CRASHES into the back of a car turning left. Everyone is thrown toward the front of the car. Korda's gun goes flying. Roper dives on top of him. They trade punches. McCall is in b.g. with the Caddy pacing the cable car. INTERSECTION Pedestrains bolt out of the way as the cable car streaks through... THE CABLE CAR Roper hammers Korda into unconsciousness. Outside McCall is honking and yelling like crazy. Roper looks over... McCall points ahead... ROPER'S POV The cable car. ROPER Leaps to the brake lever. Pulls on it. ANGLE UNDER THE CABLE CAR The clamp tries to slow the descent. It whine and smokes... Then disintegrates before our eyes. THE CABLE CAR Roper feels the lever go slack in his hands. The cable car is speeding toward the end of the line... No way to stop it... Roper turns and takes a running leap into the Caddy... INT. CADDY He lands in the passenger seat. Roper pounds his foot down on the accelerator. The Caddy lunges ahead of the cable car... McCall can't figure out what he's doing. Roper yanks the steering wheel hard right... EXT. STREET The Caddy collides with the front of the cable car. Tires SCREAM. The steel wheels CLATTER. A cloud of burning rubber forms. The cable car grinds forward pushing the Cadillac... But it's working. The cable car is slowing. BOTTOM OF STREET The crowd now sees the Caddy and cable car bearing down on them. General hysteria as they flee. THE CABLE CAR Korda regains consciousness. Sees what's going on. He grabs the satchel and bails out of the cable car... STREET ...Onto the hood of a passing taxi. The taxi slams on its brakes. Korda rolls off the hood, picks himself up and runs into an underground garage. THE CABLE CAR Grinding to a halt just short of the end of the line. Roper grabs McCall's gun off the seat and leaps out of the Caddy to pursue Korda. People approach to ogle the two vehicles in astonishment. INT. GARAGE - DAY Roper moves up an interior stairway, gun in "ready" position. He knows Korda is somewhere in the parking structure. He glides up the stairway to the third level. Checks back over the rail... No one around... Then a sound from inside the garage... Footsteps maybe. Roper carefully opens the door... Swings in with his gun... INT. THIRD LEVEL - GARAGE Lots of cars, but no one in sight. Roper moves quickly to the protection of a row of cars... He crouches down. Scans beneath the cars... No sign of Korda. Roper searches between two rows... Comes up beside a van... Thinks he hears something stirring inside. Whirls a gun toward the window. A dog lunges at the CAMERA... Snarling... baring teeth... Roper moves on. NEW ANGLE As a BMW crawls through the parking structure. Roper steps into the FOREGROUND, right into its path, gun visible. The BMW rolls to a stop. Roper approaches with caution. Roper comes up beside the car and sees a very frightened 30 year old blonde. Roper takes a check out of the backseat. ROPER Sorry, | them | How many times the word 'them' appears in the text? | 2 |